NEWS

Charges against West Salem choir teacher dismissed

Joce Johnson
Statesman Journal

A West Salem High School choir teacher will not face felony charges after a Polk County grand jury declined to indict her on accusations that she hit a child riding a skateboard with her vehicle and then left the scene without doing her duties as the driver.

The felony charge of failure to perform the duties of a driver to injured persons against Kimberly McConnell, 52, was dismissed, according to a statement by the Polk County District Attorney on Wednesday.

The incident began Sept. 19 when, according to Salem Police, McConnell was driving on Ptarmigan Street NW and her vehicle struck an 8-year-old boy. Police said she stopped her vehicle but she left before providing the required information and rendering proper aid to the boy, who was also her neighbor. He suffered a broken leg in the crash.

McConnell's attorney Walter Todd said in a public statement that the incident was unavoidable as the boy, riding a skateboard, collided with the rear of her vehicle. She stopped immediately and when the boy's family did not want to call 911, her husband stayed on the scene while she took her son to the high school and quickly returned to find that the boy had been taken to the hospital.

The choir teacher was initially charged with a felony hit and run and taken to Polk County jail on Sept. 23. Jay Remy, spokesman for the Salem-Keizer School District, said that McConnell had worked for the district since 2011. Her employment status remained the same throughout the case because her position did not require her to drive.

In the statement, District Attorney Aaron Felton said that the legal requirements of the statute that was allegedly violated and the conflicting testimony of the witnesses prompted the case to go before a grand jury. They reviewed the case for two weeks and on Tuesday they dismissed the case.

"We are grateful to the Polk County District Attorney's Office for a thorough investigation of the facts and a complete presentation to the grand jury. We always believed that Kimberly McConnell was factually and legally innocent of the charges. The system has worked the way it was supposed to work," Todd said.

Salem Police had no comment.

jdewitt@StatesmanJournal.com, (503) 399-6714 or follow on Twitter.com @Joce_DeWitt