Ex-bishop defends actions in accident
Says he thought a dog or rock might have struck windshield
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O'Brien, left, looks on as defense attorney Tom Henze questions a witness last week.
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PHOENIX, Arizona (CNN) -- The former Roman Catholic bishop of Phoenix, on trial for a fatal hit-and-run accident, testified Monday it never occurred to him that he had struck a person.
"I wish it had," the Rev. Thomas O'Brien told the jury. "Jim Reed would probably be alive, could be alive, today."
Reed, a 43-year-old jaywalking pedestrian, was killed in the June 14 accident.
O'Brien is charged with leaving the scene of a serious injury or fatal accident. He pleaded not guilty and has been free on $45,000 bail while awaiting trial. If convicted, O'Brien faces possible sentences ranging from probation to nearly four years in prison.
Police found O'Brien through a witness who saw the incident and wrote down the license plate number of the bishop's tan Buick sedan.
O'Brien, 68, stepped down as leader of the 500,000-member Roman Catholic community in Phoenix after his arrest. He had held that post for nearly 22 years.
O'Brien said Monday he was driving home from a Saturday evening church event in a neighboring parish when "there was a loud crash against my windshield" on the passenger side.
"I winced. I remember putting up my right hand," O'Brien said. "I looked over to see what it was. I immediately saw a smashed window."
He did not stop but peered through the windshield to try to learn what had caused the damage, he testified.
Once home, he did not investigate further and went inside for dinner.
While eating in the kitchen, O'Brien said, "I began speculating as to what might have caused the broken windshield. I think I said that it might have been a dog; it might have been a rock. I just didn't know."
On cross-examination, prosecutors pressed O'Brien on why he had not stopped at the scene to see what was wrong, or called police when he got home.
"It never occurred to me" to stop, O'Brien said. "It never entered my mind that it could have been a person."
He said he did not pull over for a closer look at the damage because he was only five minutes from home.
The prosecutor asked if it would have been "the decent thing" to do, to go back and look.
"It might be," O'Brien said.
O'Brien said a witness' testimony that Reed had crossed the street from the driver's side "didn't make any sense, because I didn't see him. ... [He] would have had to walk right in front of my car."
It was not until the evening after the accident, during a visit to his sister's house, O'Brien said, that he learned what may have actually happened.
During the visit, he received a phone call from a church official informing O'Brien that police were looking for him in connection with a fatal accident.
He said he then went home almost immediately, but when police did not come to the house or call, "I thought perhaps they had investigated this accident and had discovered it to be somebody else."
O'Brien also acknowledged calling his assistant the following morning -- Monday -- to inquire about having his windshield fixed.
He denied trying to hide anything, describing two trips he made after the accident and saying of his car, "I drove it openly."
Around the same time, police appeared at O'Brien's home, and after they viewed the car and interviewed him, he said the truth had sunk in. "The police convinced me that I was involved," he said.
"There were certainly feelings of regret and a deep profound sense of sorrow and sadness, that I was possibly involved in the death of this individual," O'Brien told the court.
"I want to express my regret to the Reed family, and to the Native American community. He was a stranger to me, but he was a friend and a family member to others."
Just weeks before the fatal accident, O'Brien faced charges he had covered up allegations of sexual abuse by priests in his diocese.
He avoided prosecution by agreeing to pay $700,000 for counseling for victims and investigative costs and to create a position of youth protection advocate to enforce diocese policy on sexual misconduct.
The agreement gave local authorities unprecedented oversight over how the diocese handled sexual abuse allegations.
