Fatal accident blamed on road rage may be sent to grand jury

Bill Gang

Wednesday, April 7, 1999 | 11:12 a.m.

If 22-year-old former exotic dancer Alexis Jill Bodkin is convicted of felony charges in what is alleged to have been a road-rage incident that killed a California motorcyclist, it might be because of her beauty.

Deputy District Attorney Gary Booker told the Las Vegas Sun that a witness to the fatal accident on Jan. 28 says he saw all of the movements of the blonde woman with classic girl-next-door features because he had been admiring her as they drove along Interstate 15.

That witness, Booker said, watched the progress of the woman and her black Lexus as it used the right shoulder of I-15 to pass two side-by-side trucks blocking the travel lanes just north of Jean, about 30 miles south of Las Vegas.

The man, who was driving behind the tractor-trailers, told authorities that he was able to see through the space between the trucks as the Lexus swerved in front of them and applied its brakes, the prosecutor said.

Marianne Reed, the driver of one truck, told the Nevada Highway Patrol that when the Lexus driver slammed on her brakes, she had to do the same.

Anthony Scott Wray died of massive head injuries after his motorcycle slammed into the back of Reed's trailer. The motorcycle skidded under the wheels of the trailer and was dragged for a short distance in a shower of sparks before it caught fire.

Bodkin had been scheduled to be arraigned Tuesday in Justice of the Peace Janet Smith's courtroom, but the hearing was postponed until May 4 because Booker indicated he was going to present the case to a Clark County grand jury later this month.

That would bypass the need for a Justice Court preliminary hearing and send the case directly to District Judge Jack Lehman's courtroom for a trial.

After Bodkin and her attorney Richard Wright appeared in Goodsprings Township Justice Court in Jean to request the delay, Wright called the fatal incident nothing more than "an accident."

Wright said Bodkin was one of those who immediately called 911 to report the collision and she then called the Nevada Highway Patrol on two other occasions to give more information about the incident that closed down much of the freeway.

Bodkin, who is free on her own recognizance, stood silent during the brief hearing and answered no media questions as she left the courtroom.

Wright said Bodkin is "very distraught and feels wrongly accused."

"Of course, she hates to see any accident, particularly with a loss of life, but an accident is exactly what it was," the attorney said.

Although Bodkin had obtained a sheriff's card in August to work as an entertainer at Club Paradise, a topless dance establishment at Paradise Road and Harmon Avenue, Wright said that currently she is an unemployed college student.

Booker said Wray's motorcycle left a mark from its handlebar on the rear of Reed's trailer, although it is suspected that Wray may have been preparing to pass between the two trucks when events escalated.

Reed said she had been unaware the collision had occurred, and that may have been the case with the second trucker, who never stopped and has yet to be located.

Bodkin, whose identity was unknown until she notified police after the incident, is charged with felony counts of involuntary manslaughter, reckless driving and leaving the scene of an accident.

The criminal case is not Bodkin's only problem.

On Friday, a wrongful death lawsuit was filed against her by Wray's mother and daughter.

The lawsuit, filed through attorney Richard Myers, alleges Bodkin was "intentionally driving recklessly and caused Wray's death, justifying unspecified compensatory and punitive damages."

The legal action states that "in a fit of what is commonly known as road rage, Bodkin slammed on her brakes to harass the two tractor-trailer drivers who, to her annoyance, had prevented her excessively fast course of travel."