Los Angeles County Sheriff's investigators will present evidence pointing to a misdemeanor manslaughter charge against transgender reality TV star Caitlyn Jenner in connection with a fatal Malibu car crash earlier this year, the Los Angeles Times reported on Thursday.
The evidence will show that Jenner (65) was driving at an unsafe speed on February 7th before her Cadillac Escalade, which was towing a trailer carrying an off-road vehicle, slammed into two other cars on Pacific Coast Highway, a sheriff’s detective told the paper.
A Sheriff’s spokesman confirmed that the department’s investigators had concluded their investigation and would submit the case to the Los Angeles County District Attorney next week, but declined to say if those detectives would recommend a manslaughter charge.
The department said in a written statement that “concluded in the results of the investigation is that speed was a factor, considering the existing traffic conditions.”
“The District Attorney’s Office will determine what, if any, charges will be filed in this case, or if there will be a request for further investigation,” the sheriff’s department said.
During the crash, a white Lexus being driven by 69-year-old Kim Howe was shoved by Jenner's sport-utility vehicle across a center divider and into oncoming traffic, where it was struck head-on by a Hummer.
Howe was killed in the collision and Jessica Steindorff, who was driving a black Toyota Prius also rear-ended by Jenner, was injured. Jenner escaped serious injury in the crash and declined medical treatment, authorities said.
Both Steindorff and Mrs Howe's stepchildren family sued Jenner, who was known as Bruce Jenner at the time of the crash and rose to fame with a record-breaking Olympic gold medal victory in the decathlon in the 1976 Summer Games in Montreal.
Bruce Jenner was known to younger generations as the patriarch of reality TV’s Kardashian clan before announcing in a nationally televised interview in April that he was transgender.
Caitlyn Jenner is now the star of her own reality TV show, “I Am Cait,” centered on her transition.
Reuters