Defense rests in Wisconsin bus crash trial

The truck driver facing charges in the case did not testify. The jury is expected to start deliberating next week.

By Kevin Giles, Star Tribune

Last update: April 27, 2007 - 7:39 PM

HUDSON, WIS. - The defense rested its case Friday without testimony from 24-year-old Michael J. Kozlowski, an Indiana trucker who is accused of causing a crash that killed five people from Chippewa Falls, Wis.

The jury is expected to begin deliberations in the negligent homicide trial early next week after attorneys for both sides present their closing arguments.

The last witness called by defense attorney Earl Gray was Jeffrey Steltz, a parent of a Chippewa Falls High School student. Steltz arrived on the scene moments after a rented bus carrying members of the high school marching band and their chaperones crashed into Kozlowski's overturned semitrailer early the morning of Oct. 16, 2005.

The crash happened on Interstate Hwy. 94 just west of Osseo, Wis., as the band was returning from a state competition at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater. All five who died, including marching band director Doug Greenhalgh, 48, were riding in the front of the bus. Dozens more were injured, some severely.

In addition to charges in the five deaths, Kozlowski is charged with seven felony counts of inflicting great bodily harm, and 21 misdemeanor counts relating to other injuries.

Steltz testified that when he and his wife, Maureen, crested a hill on I-94, they saw that both lanes were blocked and they stopped behind two other buses from the school that had parked in the right lane.

Steltz said that he ran toward the crash site, where he found bus passenger Cassie Gast screaming and lying on the pavement in front of the crashed bus. He also told Gray that he found a bleeding Kozlowski sitting in the left lane on the other side of the semi's cab.

"He was shivering and cold," Steltz told Gray.

Roadside, vision are issues

Gray asked Steltz, a mechanical engineer, to describe the shoulder of the roadway where the crash occurred.

"It was very soft," Steltz replied.

Gray has tried to make the condition of the roadside an issue, contending that Kozlowski, who was hauling produce to the Twin Cities for Whole Foods, lost control of the semi on a soft shoulder when he tried to pull off the highway to urinate. Under questioning by Gray, Steltz also testified that he and his wife had plenty of time to stop without hitting the overturned trailer.

Gray and fellow defense attorney Daniel Haws have tried to show throughout the nine-day trial that bus driver Paul Rasmus, 78, who died in the crash, should have been able to stop in time.

They called expert witnesses who said that Rasmus shouldn't have been driving at night because his cataracts reduced contrast in his vision, making it difficult for him to distinguish the trailer from the landscape even under a full moon.

Prosecutor Richard White, however, called a State Patrol trooper who said that Rasmus couldn't have avoided the crash. White tried to show throughout the trial that Kozlowski was driving while excessively fatigued.

Kevin Giles • 612-673-7707 • kgiles@startribune.com

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