A former Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office lieutenant has pleaded guilty to charges related to a drunk driving accident on Highway 154 in 2019 that sent multiple people to hospital.
Goleta’s Javier Jonathan Antunez, now 46, turned his plea guilty to Santa Barbara County Superior Court on March 29 and will return for conviction in two months.
Then a lieutenant in custody operations, Antunez was charged with causing the three-vehicle head-on crash on Highway 154 on September 14, 2019, near Lake Cachuma.
The California Highway Patrol said Antunez was driving east in a one-passenger BMW when the vehicle collided head-on into a western Toyota Tacoma driven by Santa Barbara’s Enrique Calderon-Mendez.
The driver of a third vehicle, a Santa Barbara woman at the wheel of a jeep heading west, was unable to avoid the wreckage and hit the rear of the Toyota.
Six people, including Antunez, were transported to Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital for treatment of various injuries after the crash, authorities said.
Judith Hall of Santa Barbara, a passenger in the Toyota, was transported to hospital by a Calstar medical helicopter for treatment of serious injuries.
Antunez and his passenger, Esther Emiko Trejo from Santa Barbara, were also both seriously injured.
Two other passengers in the Toyota, Dolores Gutierrez and Evelia Dominguez, both from Santa Barbara, suffered moderate injuries. Calderon-Mendez, the driver, sustained minor injuries.
Antunez was initially facing charges for drink-driving, and for driving with a blood alcohol content of 0.08 percent or more, causing injury, in addition to an improvement for causing serious bodily harm to five other people, said the criminal complaint was filed with Santa Barbara County Superior Court.
Under the agreement, Antunez pleaded guilty to drink-driving causing injury, and admitted that the punishment for bodily injury had been significantly improved, according to the California Attorney General’s Office.
The plea deal requires a six-year sentence, according to the attorney general’s office.
Antunez was ordered to return to court for sentencing on May 24.
Because of the improvements in sentences, Antunez was sentenced to 16 years in prison, per charge, if convicted in this case.
The district attorney general has asked the attorney general to handle the investigation and prosecution in this case in order to avoid the appearance of a potential conflict of interest as an employee was one of the injured passengers.
Jonathan Kline from the attorney general’s office led the prosecution team, while Antunez was represented by Josh Lynn.
Hall worked as a district attorney. She is also a board member for the Santa Barbara County Deputy Sheriff’s Association.
Additionally, Trejo has reportedly worked for the Santa Barbara County Parole Board.
Antunez had worked for the sheriff’s office since 1999 and was off duty at the time of the collision, the Sheriff’s Lieutenant Erik Raney said in 2019.
After the crash, Antunez was placed on administrative leave pending an internal investigation.
He retired in February 2020, spokeswoman Raquel Zick said on Tuesday.
In addition to the criminal charges, Antunez has been mentioned in civil lawsuits arising from the collision.
– Noozhawk North County editor Janene Scully can be reached at . (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk @BuienRadarNL and @BuienRadarNLConnect with Noozhawk on Facebook.