WEST JORDAN — The woman who rammed into and killed 25-year-old bicyclist Josie Johnson on a sunny day in Big Cottonwood Canyon faced the Johnson family Friday and apologized before being sentenced for negligent homicide.
"I am so sorry for what has occurred, and I know I am responsible," Elizabeth DeSeelhorst, 67, tearfully told Johnson's weeping family.
"Please believe how sorry I am," DeSeelhorst said. "Please believe me."
She said she hoped the DeSeelhorst and Johnson families can come together to do something "to honor and respect Josie Johnson."
"We forgive you," Richard Johnson, the victim's father, told DeSeelhorst. "My hope is that something good will come out of this on any number of levels."
After the sentencing, members of the Johnson and DeSeelhorst families embraced and spoke quietly to one another.
A jury in December convicted DeSeelhorst of class A misdemeanor negligent homicide, which can carry a penalty of a year in jail.
However, 3rd District Judge Royal Hansen on Friday suspended the jail time and sentenced DeSeelhorst to 180 days of home confinement with an ankle monitor, 36 months probation and 320 hours of community service to an organization that promotes either bicycle safety or health matters.
A pre-sentence report recommended no jail time. Prosecutor Christopher Bown and defense attorney Richard Van Wagoner both agreed with this recommendation, noting that DeSeelhorst has no criminal history, no other problems with driving, has voluntarily given up her driver's license and has medical conditions that require drugs and monitoring that would be hard to provide in jail.
Hansen said he hoped this case would raise awareness of safe driving for all, especially for the sake of bicyclists, and would prompt people to extend "some common courtesies" to everyone using public roads.
The emotional sentencing hearing was filled with tearful references to Josie Johnson's outgoing personality, willingness to help others and her love of life.
Johnson's brother, Ken, told the court his sister was valedictorian of her junior high and high school classes, graduated with honors from Brigham Young University and served an LDS mission in France. At the time of her death, she was a graduate student at the University of Utah studying how diabetes and high blood sugar affect cardiac functions.
She also was an avid bicyclist, swimmer and mountain climber, having swum across Lake Tahoe and climbed King's Peak not long before her death.
"Josie enjoyed a good challenge," Ken Johnson said. "She set high standards for herself and others."
Josie Johnson's death on Sept. 18, 2004, galvanized the bicycling community into holding memorial rides for her and lobbying for more safety measures, according to Malcolm Campbell, president of the Utah Bicycle Coalition.
But sadly, just as coalition members were congratulating themselves on nearly one year free of bicyclist deaths, three more cyclists in this state were hit by cars and killed in separate accidents, he said.
"I would hope something is done to help in Utah so these tragic deaths would end," Campbell said.
DeSeelhorst's lawyers argued during her three-day trial that DeSeelhorst may have suffered a mini-stroke that caused her to hit Johnson. DeSeelhorst had a major stroke in 1991, a mini-stroke in 1994, several smaller strokes and two brain aneurysms.
Nonetheless, prosecutors argued that she made no effort to avoid hitting Johnson, had the presence of mind to tell people at the scene she probably shouldn't be talking to them, and knew she had a health condition that could have affected her driving.
E-mail: lindat@desnews.com