Defense's scenario in Cottonwood school bus crash is discounted
Franco was driving van, and not a passenger, state investigator says
By John Brewer
jbrewer@pioneerpress.com
Article Last Updated: 08/01/2008 11:51:32 PM CDT


WILLMAR, Minn. — Olga Franco was already in the driver's seat of her boyfriend's minivan — and couldn't have been thrown into it — during the collision with a school bus this winter, a crash expert testified Friday.

The details of the crash came on the second day of Franco's trial in Kandiyohi County, where she faces charges in the Feb. 19 accident that killed four children near Cottonwood.

It was also the newest bit of testimony to put Franco into the driver's seat of the van, a place defense attorney Manuel Guerrero wants to reserve for Franco's boyfriend and the owner of the van, Francisco Sangabriel-Mendoza.

Prosecutor Rick Maes has already brought in witnesses who said Franco was in the driver's seat immediately after the crash and had to be extricated by rescue workers.

Minnesota State Patrol trooper Paul Skoglund, a crash reconstructionist who used surveying tools, a computer plotting program and trigonometry to re-create the collision, said the minivan was traveling between 46 and 50 mph just before it hit the school bus.

It acted as a wedge, driving under the Lakeview School District bus, lifting it up and flipping it over. As the van struck the rear axle of the bus, the van's airbags likely went off, he said.

The van then spun 270 degrees before coming to a rest in the road, he said.

The principal direction of movement for people or objects in the van would have been nearly straight ahead during the crash, he

said.
"There was no indication of force in the van that would move things side to side," he said. "It was mainly toward the principal direction of force."

Witnesses Friday included a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent who testified he tracked Franco's boyfriend to Mexico and that a family member said the boyfriend had said he was in a serious car crash in which people were killed in injured.

Testifying for the prosecution, ICE agent Jeremy Christenson told jurors he tried to locate Sangabriel-Mendoza, 29, after finding his identification papers in the home he shared with the 24-year-old Franco in Minneota.

A federal warrant was issued Feb. 27 for Sangabriel-Mendoza's arrest on suspicion of immigration violations.

Christenson interviewed Sangabriel-Mendoza's family members in Willmar, Illinois and Texas beginning Feb. 28 and learned the man had sought money from some of the relatives so he could flee to Mexico.

But Sangabriel-Mendoza had already reached his hometown of La Pesca in Mexico, said a sister who took a call from Sangabriel-Mendoza on Feb. 26.

Christenson testified his request for a federal extradition order for Sangabriel-Mendoza was denied. No explanation was offered in court.

Prosecutor Maes also brought in Susy Campos, the interpreter who assisted state trooper Dana Larsen during a bedside interview with Franco in the Marshall hospital the day of the crash. During the interview, Franco, an undocumented immigrant from Guatemala, reportedly admitted she was driving the van.

Guerrero quickly objected to Campos' testimony.

The defense lawyer questioned Campos' background, which does not include any formal training as an interpreter. He also asked her if she noticed any differences in Spanish-language dialects or if she knew what verbatim interpreting was. She did not.

Guerrero's most significant complaint was that Campos appeared to answer questions from Larsen during the interview without posing the questions to Franco in Spanish.

Referring to a transcript of the interview where Larsen asked if Franco had a driver's license, Guerrero said, "You don't even ask Ms. Franco what trooper Larsen asked you."

"I do not remember not asking her any questions," Campos replied.

Maes countered that it was possible sections of the transcript labeled "inaudible" included the questions from Campos to Franco.

Guerrero still objected to Campos' testimony, and after a 30-minute recess, she did not return to the courtroom.

Maes also brought in Amy Liberty, a Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension agent who testified to finding DNA evidence in the form of blood on both the driver and passenger side airbags of the crashed minivan.

Both samples produced a DNA profile for a man, she said. Neither matched a sample of Franco's DNA.

A general swab of other bodily fluids from both airbags only turned up a DNA profile for a man — the same one from the blood samples — on the passenger airbag.

The agent said that after a crash, blood could be transferred as people move around a vehicle — she had seen the same DNA profile come from two airbags in other cases, she said.

Guerrero asked if it would be possible for the blood to show up on the passenger's airbag if a bloody driver reached over and put it there.

She said it was possible.

The remaining prosecution witness will testify Monday. The trial is expected to end by Wednesday or Thursday.

Franco is charged with 24 counts, including criminal vehicular homicide.

John Brewer can be reached at 651-246-2539.



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