Son, dad charged in death of cyclist, cover-up

Published 5:00 am Thursday, April 19, 2007

A Southern California man accused of running down a bicyclist, driving away from the scene and torching the car he was driving was arraigned Wednesday and is now being held on $1 million bail.

Christopher George Goodson, 22, was arraigned just before his father, George Harold Goodson, who is charged with conspiring to cover up his son’s involvement in the violent hit-and-run death of Kimberly Ann Potter, of Bend.

Potter was struck and killed on Third Street in south Bend at about 2:30 a.m. Tuesday.

Police say the elder Goodson, of San Diego, lied to investigators and planned to profit from the incident by reporting his 2000 Mercedes Benz stolen and filing an insurance claim for his burned car.

He has been charged with two counts of hindering prosecution, attempted aggravated theft, initiating a false report and lying on a stolen vehicle report.

His son, of El Cajon, Calif., is charged with first-degree manslaughter, second-degree arson and assault as well as failing to perform the duties of a driver involved in an accident.

At Wednesday’s arraignment, Deschutes County District Attorney Mike Dugan said Christopher Goodson was a flight risk and that local friends and family tried to help him get away after the accident. He was found hiding in his stepbrother’s Bend apartment, Dugan said, where investigators also discovered about a half-pound of cocaine, scales, a large amount of cash and a loaded gun.

Christopher Goodson has been arrested multiple times in California, Dugan continued, was convicted of assault with a deadly weapon in 2004 and has a juvenile history.

Christopher Goodson, who had a visible injury to his forehead at Wednesday’s hearing, said he was having money problems and asked for a public defender to represent him.

On his application for an appointed lawyer, George Goodson wrote that he is currently out of work, said Deschutes County Circuit Court Judge Barbara Haslinger.

”He shows absolutely no income whatsoever,” Haslinger said. ”I have no idea how he is paying his bills. His form shows expenses but no income.”

After she appointed an attorney to represent him, Dugan asked Haslinger to hold George Goodson on $50,000 bail, which she did.

”This defendant resides in California, was staying at a local motel at the time of the incident and actively attempted to hinder the investigation by falsely reporting his vehicle stolen after he was aware that his son had killed a person with the vehicle and fled the scene,” Dugan said.

Dugan also said that George Goodson has no criminal history.

The two were in the area visiting friends and family, said Bend resident Karen Goodson, who identified herself as George’s ex-wife and Christopher’s stepmother.

She declined to give any additional comment.

”I really don’t know very much about what happened, just nothing at this point in time,” she said.

Capt. Jim Porter, of the Bend Police Department, said officials spent Tuesday and Wednesday talking to witnesses, gathering evidence and interviewing Christopher and George Goodson.

He said investigators know little about Kimberly Potter but that her family was notified of her death.

Based on reports from several officers and witness statements, Porter gave the following account of what happened in the darkness Tuesday morning.

Potter, 41, was riding her bike to a convenience store on Third Street just north of Powers Road. She lived nearby, according to a neighbor.

Investigators would not disclose her address Wednesday.

She was biking north and was in the roadway passing a city maintenance vehicle when she was struck from behind by a late-model Mercedes. A group of four people in the car had gone out to get tacos, Porter said.

Potter was likely killed on impact, when she suffered multiple and massive traumatic injuries.

At the time, Potter was wearing jeans, a blue jacket and a black fleece sweatshirt. She was not wearing a helmet and investigators said they did not find any reflective material or lighting on her body or bicycle.

Porter did not have information about whether skid marks were found in the roadway but said that a passenger in Goodson’s car said there was no time to brake.

Pieces of a car that matched the color, year, make and model of Goodson’s Mercedes were found in the roadway.

Accident reconstructionists were trying to calculate the Mercedes’ speed when it hit Potter but had not finished their work as of Wednesday night.

Police tracked down only one of the four people in the car when Potter was struck. The unidentified juvenile, of Bend, cooperated with investigators and gave them a full account of the accident, Porter said.

Officers were still searching for the other two passengers, both of Bend, on Wednesday afternoon.

Investigators had interviewed two members of the Bend city cleaning crew parked by the side of the street and working on a storm drain when Potter was hit. They heard a loud noise, saw a silver Mercedes go by and noticed that the driving was erratic.

After the accident they watched as the driver turned onto Reed Market Lane.

”He got several blocks away on Reed and stopped and examined the car,” Porter said. ”Then he continued on and fled the scene.”

Around 9 a.m., George Goodson called in a report that his 2000 Mercedes had been stolen from the parking lot of the La Quinta Inn on U.S. Highway 97, Porter said. A manager told authorities that Goodson was staying at the hotel with his son.

Police then received another call, identifying the juvenile passenger who agreed to talk to investigators.

They soon learned that there were three places in Bend that Christopher Goodson spent much of his time, including his step-brother’s apartment on Full Moon Court and his stepmother’s house.

Authorities staked out all three locations, Porter said. They saw a person matching Christopher Goodson’s description step out onto the back porch of the step-brother’s apartment at about 5:30 p.m.

After that, police applied for warrants to search the apartment, Porter said, as well as Goodson’s stepmother’s house and the area on China Hat Road where the torched Mercedes was found.

Teams were put in place at each location and all three warrants were served simultaneously, at about 11:45 p.m., Porter said. They found evidence indicating Christopher Goodson was driving the Mercedes when it hit Potter and linking him to the scene of the accident.

Porter said he could not give specific information about the evidence that was found, except for the Mercedes.

”Even the tires were burned off,” he said.

The level of Christopher Goodson’s involvement in the arson was not clear Wednesday, Porter said. And despite being arrested in an apartment with cocaine and a gun, Goodson was not charged with illegal possession of either, according to Porter.

”We have no indication who it belongs to at this point,” Porter said. He estimated the street value of the cocaine was somewhere between $4,000 and $5,000.

The charges against the Goodsons were filed by the District Attorney’s Office on Wednesday. A grand jury will convene to consider the case.

The two are scheduled to return to court Tuesday.