Tuesday, June 7, 2005 | 11:12 a.m.
More than five months after a rollover left a young woman dead, the driver of the Republic Services garbage truck that crushed her is facing felony charges of reckless driving and involuntary manslaughter.
The district attorney's office charged Richard Charles Hall, 34, on Monday in connection with the Dec. 26 death of 19-year-old Ashley Jean Swain of North Las Vegas.
Hall's 2001 Volvo garbage truck was 20,000 pounds overweight and he was going too fast on the curving off-ramp at Cheyenne Avenue and Interstate 15 when the truck rolled over and crushed Swain's Chevrolet Suburban, alleged Trooper Angie Chavera, a Highway Patrol spokeswoman.
She said the excess weight and speed caused Hall to lose control of the truck.
Clark County District Attorney David Roger said Hall is being charged in Swain's death because there is "sufficient evidence of criminal wrongdoing."
Hall, who has yet to be arrested or assigned a court date in North Las Vegas Justice Court, faces one to four years in jail and up to a $5,000 for the involuntary manslaughter charge and one to six years and up to a $5,000 for the reckless driving charge, Roger said.
For her family, the charges bring some sense of relief that Hall will have to "stand up to what he did," her father, Thomas Swain of Las Vegas, said Monday. The family, who has filed a civil suit against Hall and Republic Services of Southern Nevada, had begun to fear Hall would never be charged.
"Her mother and I want to see justice done as do all of her family," Swain said. "We just don't think it was right how she died."
His daughter was a mile to mile-and-a-half from her home that December morning when Hall's truck crushed hers, Swain said. She was coming home from her job as a food runner at the Rainforest Cafe at the MGM Grand, having worked Christmas so she could visit her older sister, Wesley Swain Revere, in Tennessee and meet Wesley's new husband.
"The day we buried her she was supposed to go visit her big sister," said Swain, who also lost an infant son, Dusty, five years ago to sudden infant death syndrome.
Ashley Swain was a "typical 19-year-old," her father said, who always had a smile on her face and was "everyone's best friend." She was devoted to her family, including three sisters and four brothers, and had "Daddy's Girl" tattooed on her shoulder after her father went through heart surgery last year.
Now, Thomas Swain has Ashley's number, 24, from her days playing basketball at Chaparral High School tattooed on his right arm and her name on his left along with Dusty's name and the names of his late parents.
Swain said he didn't get to see his daughter on Christmas Day because she was with her mother, Angela Ipock, and because she had to work. They were supposed to have met later on Dec. 26 to exchange presents.
The criminal complaint against Hall alleges that he was driving in an "unlawful and criminally negligent manner" by speeding, driving the vehicle overweight, not paying full attention to his driving, failing to exercise due care, failing to maintain a travel lane and failure to pay attention to highway conditions.
According to the March 2 Nevada Highway Patrol affidavit recommending the charges, "Hall was driving in willful and wanton disregard of the safety of himself and the rest of the motoring public while traveling northbound (Interstate) 15/Cheyenne Interchange. While driving recklessly at 62 to 68 miles in a commercial vehicle, uphill, on a sharp left hand turn that he drives daily, he failed to maintain control" of his vehicle."
Hall told troopers at the time that the traffic light off the freeway exit was green when he came around the curve and that a Ford truck in front of him started to go and then suddenly stopped, according to a Highway Patrol affidavit. Hall said he swerved to avoid the truck and his load shifted, toppling the vehicle onto Swain's Suburban.
Another witness told troopers that the light was red as Hall came up the curve and that the truck was going "pretty fast."
It took until March for the Nevada Highway Patrol to forward the charges to the district attorney's office, and until Monday for prosecutors to screen the case and approve the charges.
The district attorney said he could not explain the delay, except to note that there are 56,000 cases filed with his office each year. Prosecutors had up to a year to decide on charges.
Other drivers who have caused fatal collisions have gotten off with only traffic citations in the past because their actions in causing the collisions were not deemed criminally negligent, Roger said. Beginning Oct. 1, any motorist who causes a fatal collision may be charged with vehicular manslaughter.
Lawmakers passed the law earlier this session after a bus stop crash in Las Vegas killed four people. Metro Police and prosecutors said there wasn't enough evidence to charge the driver of the vehicle, Veronica Schmidt, with a crime.
The vehicular manslaughter charge carries a sentence of up to six months in jail and a $1,000 fine. Had that law been in place in December, it would never have affected Hall's case because there is evidence of criminal negligence, Roger said.
Hall was not reachable for comment Monday. Republic Services officials referred calls to public relations firm Purdue Marion & Associates.
Spokesman Bill Marion said he could not comment on Hall's status with Republic Services or on whether the company had taken any additional safety precautions to make sure drivers were not driving vehicles overweight. He said safety is a "constant" part of driver training.
But Swain said he believes garbage trucks often drive overweight, and that both Republic Services and Hall could have prevented the collision that killed his daughter.
"There's no excuse that they didn't know the truck was overweight," Swain said, noting that the driver should have known there was a problem the minute he started operating the vehicle.
He said he and Ashley's mother would like the state mandate by law that commercial vehicles carry digital scales in their vehicles.
At the same time that he is seeking justice for his daughter's death, Swain said he isn't sure what that entails or even whether he thinks Hall should do jail time.
"I don't know what I want," Swain said. "I think each of us have driven in a way we shouldn't at one time in our lives, and we need to realize that there is a price to pay for that, especially if you take a life.
"... If I did it, I would have to stand up to it," Swain continued. "I feel bad for the guy in a way. I can't imagine what he's going through."
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