An expert hired by Koua Fong Lee's defense attorneys to examine a 1996 Camry that was involved in a deadly 2006 crash confirmed that Lee was braking when his car smashed into another on the Snelling Avenue exit ramp off Interstate 94.
A report prepared by Richard F. Dusek, an engineer from Orchard Lake, Mich., was filed Thursday in Ramsey County District Court. It said that during an inspection April 20-21 at the St. Paul police impound lot, he found that the accelerator throttle system parts in the Camry stayed stuck and didn't return to an idle position and that the cruise-control mechanisms also were not moving freely.
Both, Dusek wrote, could have "contributed to the failure of the driver's release of the accelerator pedal to affect engine and vehicle speed.
"Damage from the accident does not appear to be causing any of these faults," the report said.
Lee, now 32, is serving an eight-year prison sentence after being convicted of criminal vehicular homicide. On the heels of Toyota's recent well-publicized problems with cases of "rapid acceleration" in some cars, Lee's attorneys have filed a motion in Ramsey County District Court to get Lee a new trial.
He was driving his family home from their Minneapolis church on June 10, 2006. As they exited I-94, the car accelerated instead of slowing down. Lee's car sideswiped several vehicles before slamming into a car and ultimately killing three people.
He testified he frantically pumped the brakes but they did not slow the car. Prosecutors theorized at the time that he mistakenly pumped the accelerator, and his defense attorney conceded the same.
The jury, however, did not hear about an Oct. 26, 2006, letter from an insurance company about an inspection of the car done that day. Tracy Eichhorn-Hicks, who was Lee's attorney at the time, had the letter, which said "the vehicle was engaged in a braking maneuver at the time of the crash."
