This ex-police officer will spend a year in prison after Whatcom crash killed his brother
A former longtime Tacoma Police Department officer will spend a year in prison for driving the wrong way on Interstate 5 in northern Whatcom County and causing a fatal accident that killed his brother in July 2020.
Gary Vernon Johnson, 76, of Graham, was sentenced Friday, Jan. 21, in Whatcom County Superior Court to one year and one day in prison and a 1½ years of probation for the death of his brother, 73-year-old David B. Johnson of Blaine.
Gary Johnson pleaded guilty to vehicular homicide, a felony, in late November.
Gary Johnson was employed with the Tacoma Police Department from 1970 to 2007. He retired as a police officer specialist, according to information from the city of Tacoma provided to The Bellingham Herald.
Gary Johnson was given a sentence below the standard range of 6½ years to 8½ years in prison due to several mitigating factors, including his age and health.
Whatcom County Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Ben Pratt asked the court to sentence Gary Johnson to 7½ years in prison and to reject a sentence below the standard range.
Pratt said he didn’t think the factors cited by Gary Johnson’s defense attorney, such as his age, the fact that both Johnson brothers were drinking and that they were related, were mitigating factors that argued for a sentence outside of the standard range.
Pratt said while a police officer should know better than to drive a vehicle while intoxicated and should be held to a higher standard, he was asking the court that Gary Johnson be treated the same as every other person who would be in this situation.
“His age should not affect (the sentence) in his favor. He’s old enough to know better than to drive drunk and then have the ultimate consequence be suffered. He took away a life. I’m asking you to treat him the same way you would treat anyone else in this situation,” Pratt said.
Deeply loved and missed
David Johnson’s oldest daughter, Diane Durbin, said describing how her life has changed after her father’s death was hard to put into words. Durbin said it took her nearly a year to drive the freeway where her father died.
“The amount of times I wished I could talk to him or get his advice about certain things has been more than I can count. It’s all the things he hasn’t and won’t be there for that hurts the most,” Durbin said.
She said her father was excited to watch his grandchildren grow up and that now he won’t get to experience his grandchildren’s band concerts, his daughter’s wedding or holidays and birthdays.
In part of her statement addressed to Gary Johnson, Durbin said she knew he missed his brother and that he would never intentionally hurt him.
“I’m sure this hurts you just as much as it does us. But you were a cop. You know how much drunk driving impacts families. You took away my dad and you took away my kids’ grandpa,” Durbin said.
David Johnson’s other daughter, Danielle Sarb, said her father was a Vietnam War veteran who had a complex history and various health problems. She said her father’s drinking that night made him more vulnerable, but that it did not make him complicit in his own death.
Sarb said her father was “smart and quiet and disarmingly funny.” She said he loved gardening, books, animals and antiques and taught her to love all of those things too. While David Johnson had a hard life, he was kind and gentle, she said.
“I know that Gary didn’t mean to harm his brother, but he did harm his brother and he harmed all of us too,” Sarb said. “I just want the court to know that my dad was a person who mattered, a person who is deeply loved and a person who is deeply missed.”
Love for a brother
Gary Johnson’s defense attorney, Brett Purtzer, said that nothing he could say will ease the pain of the loss of David Johnson.
Purtzer said Gary Johnson was a Vietnam War veteran who was awarded the Purple Heart and then was a police officer in Tacoma for nearly four decades.
“These are situations and characteristics of an individual that has been a hero his entire life. One day he made a terrible decision and it cost him his brother. There’s no greater punishment that anybody could have,” Purtzer said.
Purtzer said several factors warranted a departure from the standard sentencing range.
Purtzer asked the court to consider Gary Johnson’s age and his declining health. He also asked the court to weigh the fact that the Johnsons were brothers who were close and that this situation has irreparably damaged the Johnson family and their relationships with one another.
Purtzer said sentencing Gary Johnson within the standard range would essentially amount to a life sentence, which he said wasn’t appropriate. Purtzer asked the court to sentence Gary Johnson to two years in prison.
Gary Johnson, who addressed the court before he was sentenced, said where he found himself is unfathomable. He said he has lived a life of service to his country and state that he grew up and lived in, and that he was embarrassed and ashamed about what has happened.
“Losing my brother is a sentence I will live with for the rest of my life. The love I have for my brother will never diminish. He will always have a special place in my heart. This is the most heartbreaking loss of my life and I apologize to everyone affected by this tragic accident,” Gary Johnson said.
Gary Johnson said after he retired he would often come up to Whatcom County and spend time with his brother where he would help him with gardening, work around the house and caring for his dog. He said he did all he could to help his brother and that his brother was his best friend.
“I have no words to express my depth of heartache I feel for this tragic loss,” Gary Johnson said. “If only my sorrow could bring him back, I would say a litany of ‘I’m sorrys’.”
Mitigating factors
After taking a 30-minute recess, Whatcom County Superior Court Judge Rob Olson said this was the most tragic case he has experienced in his 26 years of practicing law.
In considering the various mitigating factors presented in court, Olson found that the Johnsons drinking together that night in July led to the driving and ultimately the accident and death of David Johnson.
He also said Gary Johnson’s age was determined to be a mitigating factor. Given Gary Johnson’s age and health, it transforms even the lowest sentence in the standard range into a life sentence and that in no other circumstances would being sentenced for vehicular homicide be a death sentence, Olson said.
Ultimately, Olson sentenced Gary Johnson to a year and a day in prison and required that he be medically evaluated before being transferred to prison.
“As I said at the outset, this is the hardest sentencing decision I have had to make and the most tragic case I have come across. I know it may not seem possible right now, but I do hope that the whole Johnson family can begin to heal and move forward in grief to find a path towards mutual love and forgiveness,” Olson said.
