Advocacy & Safety - Felony Charges for Driver Who Intentionally Ran Down Cyclist

Police say today that 35 year old Wayne Conrad Thompson has been booked for allegedly causing a crash with a man on a bike yesterday afternoon at 2:00pm at NE 122nd and Glisan.

Thompson has been arrested and charged with one count of assault in the first degree. The charge is a Class A felony, and is used when police suspect there is an intention to cause serious physical injury to another person by means of a deadly weapon.

The victim is in serious condition at a local hospital. Police describe him as an adult white male but have not released his identity.

Thompson is being held on $250,000 bail and will be arraigned on Monday. If he is tried and convicted of the crime he is charged with, the minimum mandatory prison sentence will be 90 months (7.5 years).

The crash took place a mile and a half away from, and on the same road as, a hit and run fatality involving a man on a bike that took place very early in the morning on the previous day.

http://bikeportland.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/thompson1.jpg

http://bikeportland.org/2009/08/29/man-charged-with-intentionally-running-down-person-on-bike-friday/

He sure look like a real "winner." I hope he enjoys the buttsecks in prison. Fragging waste-of-skin cager.

Is it safe to guess that he is not a PhD candidate at MIT?

Interesting that this incident took place on the same road where there had been a hit-and-run fatality involving a cyclist, on the previous day.

I wounder how the charge of one count of assault in the first degree came down? The driver stayed at the scene.

So, is he the driver behind the previous day's crime as well?

More details:


Driver who backed into bicyclist Friday was going 40 mph, according to witnesses
Posted by Michael Russell, The Oregonian August 31, 2009 17:55PM

Courtesy of Multnomah County Sheriff's Office
Wayne Conrad ThompsonA driver who argued with a bicyclist Friday afternoon in Northeast Portland put his car into reverse and backed into the bicyclist at an estimated 40 mph, according to court reports.

Witnesses told investigators they heard yelling about 2 p.m. in a parking lot at Northeast 122nd Avenue and Glisan Street, according to a search warrant affidavit filed in the case.

They watched as the driver slammed his white 1997 Kia Sportage into reverse and drove it "as fast as it possibly could go" before plowing into the bicyclist, witnesses told investigators.

After impact, the victim appeared to be stuck to the back of the SUV.

The SUV ran through a planter box, forcibly dislodging a boulder estimated to weigh more than 100 pounds, investigators wrote.

Wayne Conrad Thompson, 35, of Portland was looking over his left shoulder, in the direction of travel, and appeared agitated when he struck Michael F. Luther, 52, also of Portland, according to the document.

Thompson was arrested Saturday on accusations of first-degree assault. Bail was set at $250,000.

Police obtained a search warrant early Saturday morning to search Thompson's SUV and to test his blood for intoxicants. Thompson did not appear intoxicated at the scene, officers reported.

Luther was taken to Legacy Emanuel Hospital & Health Center in critical condition. By Monday evening he had improved and was listed in fair condition.
http://www.oregonlive.com/news/index.ssf/2009/08/driver_who_backed_into_bicycli.html


A commenter on our story who was at the scene but did not witness the crash reports that Thompson’s SUV had

“…gone over one island clear across to the next island and stopped. At least one back tire was flat so that would have made it difficult to flee. Also, there were several people that witnessed the situation including the waitress who got the license number just in case. All agreed that the car was going very fast in reverse and one person said he had heard loud words exchanged. The cyclist had been knocked out of his shoes and his helmet was a few feet from his head.”
http://bikeportland.org/2009/09/01/details-emerge-in-fridays-alleged-assault/