A Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Department lieutenant accused of driving under the influence of alcohol and causing a crash that injured multiple people last month has been formally charged by the California Attorney General’s Office.
Javier Jonathan Antunez, 44, of Goleta has been criminally charged in connection with the head-on crash involving three vehicles on Highway 154 Sept. 14 near Lake Cachuma.
He faces a felony charge of driving under the influence of alcohol, and felony driving with a blood-alcohol content of .08 percent or more, causing injury, in addition to an enhancement for causing great bodily injury to five other people, according the criminal complaint filed in Santa Barbara County Superior Court on Wednesday.
The California Highway Patrol said after the crash that Antunez was driving eastbound in a BMW with one passenger when the vehicle slammed head-on into a westbound Toyota Tacoma driven by Enrique Calderon-Mendez, 43, of Santa Barbara.
The driver of a third vehicle, a 28-year-old Santa Barbara woman at the wheel of a westbound Jeep, could not avoid the wreckage and struck the rear of the Toyota.
Six people, including Antunez, were transported to Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital for treatment of various injuries following the crash, authorities said.
Judith Hall, 43, of Santa Barbara, a passenger in the Toyota, was airlifted by a CalStar medical helicopter to the hospital for treatment of major injuries.
Antunez and his passenger, Esther Emiko Trejo, 48, of Santa Barbara, both suffered major injuries.
Two other passengers in the Toyota, Dolores Gutierrez, 60, and Evelia Dominguez, 48, both of Santa Barbara, suffered moderate injuries. Calderon-Mendez, the driver, received minor injuries.
Two days after the crash, officials confirmed Antunez worked as a Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Department custody lieutenant at the Main Jail.
He has worked for the agency since 1999, and was off-duty at the time of the collision, sheriff’s Lt. Erik Raney said.
Antunez was placed on administrative leave pending an internal investigation, Raney added.
The Santa Barbara County District Attorney’s Office asked the California Attorney General’s Office to handle the investigation and prosecution in this case to avoid the appearance of a possible conflict of interest since an employee was one of the injured passengers.
Hall works as a District Attorney’s Office investigator. She also serves as a board member for the Santa Barbara County Deputy Sheriff’s Association.
Additionally, Trejo reportedly has worked for the Santa Barbara County Probation Department.
Due to the sentencing enhancements, Antunez could face up to 16 years in prison, per charge, if convicted in this case, according to the criminal complaint.
Antunez was released from custody on $100,000 bail.
He is scheduled to be arraigned on the changes Oct. 16 before Judge Gustavo Lavayen in Santa Maria Superior Court.
No booking photo was immediately available since Antunez was transported to the hospital after the crash, according to the Sheriff’s Department.
— Noozhawk North County editor Janene Scully can be reached at jscully@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.