By Leah Timmerman and Koda Slingluff
SACRAMENTO, CA – A judge here in Sacramento County Superior Court Tuesday refused to grant bail in any amount for a man whose car crash seriously injured the victim, who doesn’t even want to press charges.
However, it wasn’t that charge keeping Freddy Tejeda in jail.
It was his old record, including a DUI and threatening a Walmart employee with a knife—going back to 2002—that helped Judge Geoffrey Goodman decide to deny the defendant bail. He’s also violated probation.
Tejeda was driving when he hit a cattle fence back in 2016. It went through the windshield and hit the victim, his acquaintance, who was in the passenger seat. The victim sustained injuries to the head, and had to get screws and a metal plate put into his skull.
But, despite this, he maintains that it was an accident and does not seem angry with Tejeda. Reading comments from the victim, Assistant Public Defender David Klemer said, “Tejeda is a friend of a friend. I know him pretty well. He isn’t a bad guy.”
But Tejada has to deal with the accident case, including a more recent DUI. And has violated probation related to a 180-day sentence from the Walmart arrest.
Klemer still argued that Tejeda should be eligible for some sort of release while awaiting further proceedings. He said that Tejeda had a full time job and was sending money back to his mother in Mexico.
He noted that the court could add conditions to Tejeda’s probation to keep him off the road and away from alcohol to ensure public safety.
Deputy District Attorney Kitty Tetrault still requested that Tejeda not be released.
She explained that he fled the scene of the crash. Given his previous DUI charge, his fleeing made her believe that he “was likely drunk” during the incident in 2016. Also, she noted, this case was the second felony strike for Tejeda.
His prior offense was pulling a knife on an employee at a Walmart. Apparently, Tejeda and others approached the employee and asked questions about his gang affiliations. The questions culminated in Tejeda displaying a knife and shouting that he was going to shoot and kill the employee.
Tejeda was placed on probation because of these actions in 2007 but did not keep in contact with the officer and his record still lists him as on probation.
Judge Goodman, when making the decision on bail commented, “You generally don’t drive into a fence unless there’s some sort of issue there.”
He also stated that Tejeda giving a false ID to a peace officer, his previous possible probation violations, and potentially leaving the country without approval also factored into his decision.
No bail was set for all offenses against Tejeda, who is set to face further proceedings on July 13 at 8:30 a.m.
Koda is a junior at UC Berkeley, majoring in Philosophy and minoring in Rhetoric. He is from Ventura, CA.
Leah Timmerman is a 4th year Political Science and American Studies major at UC Davis. She is originally from Los Angeles, California.
To sign up for our new newsletter – Everyday Injustice – https://tinyurl.com/yyultcf9
Support our work – to become a sustaining at $5 – $10- $25 per month hit the link:
