A Vancouver man pleaded guilty Wednesday in a 2019 fatal crash in east Vancouver and was sentenced to 21 months in prison.
Court records show Dennis D. Bogle Jr., 60, entered a guilty plea to vehicular homicide caused by disregarding the safety of others in the death of Huong Nguyen, 58, of Portland.
As part of the plea agreement, charges of hit-and-run resulting in death and third-degree driving with a suspended or revoked license were dismissed.
In his plea, Bogle said he was driving his truck in a dark alley, while lighting a cigarette, and was unaware he had hit someone; he thought he hit a trash can and did not stop to check. He said he didn’t realize at the time that Nguyen was “on the other side of the garbage can picking up the garbage that had fallen out when her can had toppled over just a minute prior.”
The crash was reported to police shortly before 9 p.m. Sept. 5, 2019. Officers responded to a parking lot in the 500 block of Southeast Chkalov Drive, where they found an injured woman, identified as Nguyen, lying on the ground. The driver left the scene.
According to a probable cause affidavit, Nguyen was lying in the parking lot near the south side of a strip mall, one in a series of several strip malls along that side of the street.
“There was a large trash can and a large amount of trash scattered around Huong,” the affidavit says.
Nguyen’s co-workers at a nearby restaurant told police they last saw her taking out the trash. They went to check on her when she didn’t return and found her on the ground, according to the affidavit.
Detectives obtained security footage from a neighboring business that captured the crash. It clearly showed Bogle’s truck striking Nguyen as she was kneeling down to pick up trash, court records say.
Police also obtained a second video showing Bogle enter a nearby gas station and then drive toward the alley between two strip malls where dumpsters are located, court records state.
Bogle was connected to the truck through sales records, a theft case associated with the truck and his driver’s license photo. When officers contacted Bogle at his home, he admitted to being the driver involved in the crash, according to the affidavit.
