Driver charged with manslaughter in cyclist's death

Then came the terrible crash.

A young woman driving an SUV was heading south on C Street through Midtown during the busy morning commute. According to court papers filed Monday, Melissa Rabe ran a red light at 40th Avenue and plowed into Johnson. Witnesses told police that Johnson, pedaling west on 40th, had the green light. The teen was pronounced dead at Providence Alaska Medical Center two days later, according to court papers.

Now Rabe, 26, faces charges of manslaughter and driving under the influence in connection with the crash.

Prosecutors say Rabe had marijuana in her system that morning. She also may have been distracted by the breakfast she had picked up from McDonald's.

"I ran a red light. I didn't see him," she told a witness right after the wreck, according to bail paperwork filed by prosecutors. Johnson was riding fast and dressed in his dark work clothes. The sun wouldn't be up for another hour. But the road was dry.

Half-eaten hash browns were found outside her vehicle, and other food, still wrapped, was in the McDonald's bag. The receipt bore a time stamp of 7:32 a.m.; the wreck happened five minutes later, according to the bail memorandum by assistant district attorney Gustaf Olson.

"Driving by itself is a very complex multifaceted task ... and when you add eating to that as well, you're not operating at your best. Add any level of intoxicating or impairing substance to that and there's a recipe for disaster. Especially at 7:30 in the morning on a major thoroughfare," Olson said by phone Monday.

A grand jury indicted Rabe last week on manslaughter and DUI charges. Her first court appearance was Monday afternoon. She wasn't in custody and sat in the back row of the spectator area surrounded by a big group of people who appeared to be friends and family, though none would talk to news reporters. Rabe was young looking, with glasses and dark hair.

Mara Michaletz, the assistant district attorney handling a long list of new felony cases in court Monday, asked Anchorage Superior Court Judge Michael Wolverton to order random urine checks of Rabe while she is awaiting trial. Drug testing is needed because of the seriousness of the charges and the marijuana in her system when the crash happened, Michaletz said.

But defense attorney Wally Tetlow argued that random urine tests would be "overkill."

"Ms. Rabe is a lifelong Alaskan, born and raised. No prior convictions whatsoever. And I would note that this case is now one year, two months old. Ms. Rabe has been driving with a valid license ever since" without any problems, Tetlow told the judge.

Wolverton didn't order the drug testing. But he did require Rabe to put up a $5,000 cash bond that she'll lose if she doesn't comply with conditions of her release and show up for court.

After the hearing, Rabe huddled with Tetlow and others in a small room at the courthouse. Both Rabe and her lawyer declined to talk about the case as they walked outside.

A YOUNG MAN'S STORY

Johnson was from the village of Emmonak but got in some trouble there when he was younger. He was sent to Anchorage, where at age 14 he began living in the foster home of Verna and Tyrone Gibson. At age 19, he was winding down his time in foster care. He was supposed to be on his own that December.

Johnson was a quiet boy who barely spoke the first few years with his foster family, Verna Gibson said.

"He wasn't into dating. He wasn't into partying," she said. He did well at West High, graduating in May 2008. He thrived in his job at the Shell car wash at the corner of Northern Lights Boulevard and Minnesota Drive. He made good tips and turned down opportunities to work in construction, Gibson said.

She wanted him to take driver's education and get his license, especially since he was moving out soon.

"But Jon was more comfortable with riding his bike. It wasn't a big deal for him," Gibson said.

He was strong and healthy, a hard worker who didn't mind the long bike commute from their home in South Anchorage, she said.

Johnson was her foster child longer than any other. His death may have hit especially hard because two years earlier, her 14-year-old stepson was hit and killed by a car in Washington, D.C. And just six weeks before that, her grown daughter died unexpectedly of a blood disorder, Gibson said.

Gibson said her family was devastated by Johnson's death but she knows Rabe and her family must be suffering too.

"I feel bad for that person because that's going to be a mark on her life," Gibson said.

But still a life was lost. Johnson was just "stepping into his manhood."

Johnson had talked about fixing up a trailer home with his father but Gibson thought he would have fit right into a new project she's working on to provide housing and support for young people just leaving state care.

After he died, someone put an all-white "ghost bike" in the median at 40th and C as a memorial. It stayed there for a long time. It wasn't the family, but rather the cycling community. When Gibson saw the bike, it was covered in red roses.

"It just took my breath away. I had to pull over and start crying," Gibson said.

THE MARIJUANA FACTOR

Unlike some states, Alaska doesn't have a set level of THC, the psychoactive substance in marijuana, at which a person is automatically considered impaired, Olson said. That makes prosecuting marijuana impairment cases more complex than drunken driving cases, where someone with a blood-alcohol level of .08 is considered too drunk to drive.

Some Anchorage police officers have received special training in a 12-step protocol to evaluate whether someone is impaired by drugs, Olson said. But there aren't standard field tests as with alcohol.

Olson said he's prosecuted other DUI cases in which the person hadn't been drinking at all but was impaired by marijuana. In one case, a driver high on marijuana pulled into traffic and T-boned an Anchorage police officer, who suffered career-ending spinal injuries, Olson said. The driver eventually pleaded guilty to felony assault and driving under the influence.

After the wreck that killed Johnson, investigators sent samples of Rabe's blood to the Washington state toxicology lab for testing. Analysts found a THC level more than double what a two-month study at the Washington crime lab found in suspects considered impaired by the arresting officer, the memo said.

Rabe told Anchorage police she had last ingested marijuana three days earlier, the bail memo says. But Olson said that the element of THC measured in that test only stays in the system about three hours.

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Find Lisa Demer online at adn.com/contact/ldemer or call 257-4390.