Guilty Plea In Dui Death -- Former Bellevue Officer Faces Possibly Four Years In Prison

BELLEVUE

Former Bellevue police Officer Eric Thomas this morning pleaded guilty to charges stemming from a deadly New Year's drunken-driving crash that will all but certainly send him to prison.

"I want to take responsibility for my actions on January 1st," said the 29-year-old Thomas, who a year ago showed a promising career.

Thomas stood before King County Superior Court Judge Ken Comstock as he admitted one count of vehicular homicide and one of vehicular assault.

Sentencing was set for July 23. Prosecutors said they will ask a judge to send Thomas to prison for four years. The standard range for first-time offenders is roughly 3 1/2 to 4 1/2 years.

King County prosecutor's spokesman Dan Donohoe said the fact that Thomas was a police officer with an excellent record was not a factor in the sentencing recommendation.

Thomas' lawyer, John Wolfe of Seattle, said he will press the judge to go below the state guidelines and give Thomas an unusually light sentence, emphasizing his client's excellent record as an officer and the fact that the victims of the 3 a.m. crash willingly climbed into Thomas' car although they knew he had been drinking.

"This is a man whose life up until now has been exemplary," Wolfe said. "He has served well. He has accepted responsibility from the beginning."

Thomas' blood alcohol tested at 0.08 percent - right at the new legal threshold - when his Dodge Stratus spun into the path of an oncoming sport-utility vehicle on Coal Creek Parkway Southeast in Bellevue.

Brian Grooms, a 26-year-old Ohioan riding in the back seat, was crushed to death instantly. Grooms was visiting his childhood friend, 27-year-old State Trooper Jeremy Reid, who suffered massive head injuries and brain damage while riding in the passenger seat.

Last week, Reid was released from a Columbus, Ohio, rehabilitation hospital and went home to live with his mother. He is learning to walk again and recently regained some ability to speak.

In an e-mail to a reporter this morning, Brian Grooms' father, Richard, said he and his former wife, Grooms' mother, remain devastated by their son's death.

"I can only have the memory of the child that didn't survive the night out on the town with people that have committed their life to being the protective men of law enforcement," Richard Grooms wrote.

"Eric will make a new life. Jeremy will never be the same. Brian Heath Grooms is surely missed by his friends and family. . . . . The hurt will never go away for any of these young men or their families."

The driver of the sport-utility vehicle, John B. Bell of Bellevue, was also charged with drunken driving. His case is pending, and prosecutors expect him to enter a deferred-prosecution program for first-time offenders.

Thomas, who was off duty, had been drinking with friends at a radio station's New Year's Eve party at Seattle Center before the crash.

Thomas said he stopped drinking between the time he left the party and the crash, which occurred at least an hour later.

Wolfe stressed that Thomas was off duty.

"This is not a situation of a police officer using the badge to commit a crime," the attorney said. "This is a case of a citizen who happened to be a police officer who made a mistake."

Two weeks after the crash, Thomas resigned from the Bellevue Police Department, where he had been a patrolman for three years.