‘We are here to change his mind.’ Protesters want former deputy charged with manslaughter
About 25 protesters gathered outside the Stanislaus County District Attorney’s Office on Friday to call for criminal charges against a former sheriff’s deputy involved in a fatal crash in January 2022.
Eric Fulmer was driving a department-issued vehicle 121 mph in the fog on the way to an emergency call just before he broadsided the vehicle driven by Saul Betancourt.
Betancourt, 21, died at the scene. Maria Prado, his passenger and the mother of his child, was seriously injured. Fulmer also was seriously injured.
Though the California Highway Patrol, which investigated the crash, found Fulmer primarily responsible for the crash, District Attorney Jeff Laugero has declined to file vehicular manslaughter charges against him.
“We are here trying to change his mind,” Betancourt’s sister Maria Madrigal said. “If it doesn’t happen today, we will just be back. We are not going to stop. My brother, he deserves justice.”
Protesters held signs with pronouncements such as, “121 mph is reckless driving,” “Stop protecting him” and “Eric Fulmer swore to protect the public & didn’t.”
Madrigal said she organized the protest with the help of Darlene Ruiz, the mother of Trevor Seever, who was fatally shot by former Modesto police Officer Joseph Lamantia.
“It’s important to me that other impacted families have support,” Ruiz said.
She held similar protests outside the DA’s office before Lamantia was fired and charged with voluntary manslaughter. His case is pending.
Ruiz said that when the former district attorney, Birgit Fladager, made the decision to charge Lamantia, she told her that she had heard her protesting outside her office.
CHP: Fulmer primarily at fault
The CHP put Fulmer primarily at fault for the collision “due to the traffic conditions and limited visibility.”
Betancourt’s action, rolling the stop at 6 mph at an intersection where Fulmer had no stop sign, was an associated factor in the collision, according to the report.
Using video from an officer’s body camera and a patrol car camera, the CHP calculated that visibility was between 350 and 425 feet. Using crash reconstruction software, investigators estimated that a safe speed for the limited visibility would have been 64 to 72 mph.
As Betancourt was pulling into the intersection, Fulmer’s Nissan “was approximately 392 feet away and most likely not visible to Betancourt,” according to the CHP report.
Under California law, authorized emergency vehicles are exempt from certain vehicle code laws, like speeding, when they are being used to respond to an emergency call. Fulmer had activated the Nissan’s lights and siren.
But the law states that the driver is not relieved of “the duty to drive with due regard for the safety of all persons using the highway, nor protect him from the consequences of an arbitrary exercise of the privileges.”
Why the DA says he didn’t charge
Regarding his decision not to file charges, Laugero previously cited several witness reports that contradicted the CHP’s calculations of visibility that day; Betancourt’s associated actions of rolling the stop sign; and the hurdle of overcoming the emergency vehicle exemption, which has no specific language of what “due regard” is as it relates to speed and weather conditions.
On Friday, Laugero told The Bee in a text, “I appreciate and understand what (protesters) are asking for, but in the absence of new evidence, we still cannot meet our burden of proof.”
Fulmer, who’d worked at the Sheriff’s Office for 10 years, was fired March 29, following the conclusion of an internal investigation.
Betancourt’s family has said it is pleased Fulmer was fired but it’s not enough.
Madrigal said her brother was a funny, outdoorsy man who enjoyed fishing and swimming at area rivers. She said he and his family were at the river every weekend the summer before his death.
More than anything, Madrigal said Betancourt loved being a father to his daughter, Yahaira.
“He was a young father but he loved his daughter so much,” Madrigal said.
Yahaira was only 2 when her father died but Madrigal said he is alive in her memories. “She tells us that he’s playing with her,” Madrigal said.
This story was originally published April 8, 2023 at 8:25 AM.
