Plea hearing delayed in cyclist hit and run

A plea hearing for Melissa Brooke Herz of Powell Butte that had been scheduled for Oct. 12 has been delayed until Dec. 14 in Wasco County Circuit Court.

She is accused of striking and severely injuring a Keizer bicyclist with her truck, then leaving the scene.

On Oct. 1 she entered an Alford plea of guilty in Crook County Circuit Court to a misdemeanor count of drunken driving in an incident related to the hit and run. Sentencing is scheduled for February.

An Alford plea is one in which the person charged does not admit to committing the crime, but acknowledges that the prosecution likely could prove the charge.

The cyclist, John Maurice, was on a 143-mile solo training ride in north-central Oregon around dusk on March 14 near the top of the steep Clarno Grade near Antelope when he was struck hard from behind.

Keizer cyclist on long, painful road to recovery

He lay on the gravel shoulder for about an hour before a passing couple saw an arm with a reflective band waving feebly on the shoulder, a recounting that Maurice, who had no memory of the crash, said he got later from the couple.

Maurice was taken by ambulance to St. Charles Madras then transferred to St. Charles Medical Center in Bend via helicopter because of the extent of his injuries: head trauma, a broken shoulder blade, four broken ribs on the left side, and his lower left leg bones broken in several places.

A side-view mirror was found at the site where Maurice was struck.

Oregon State Police troopers from the collision-reconstruction unit who were en route to the site came across a Toyota Tundra pickup truck stopped on Highway 218 with its flashers on that had been reported as possibly broken-down.

Herz, the driver of the Tundra, failed a field-sobriety test, and the truck was missing a right side-view mirror.

She faces charges of second-degree assault and failure to perform the duties of a driver to injured persons, both felonies, and reckless driving, a misdemeanor.