Suspect in cyclist death reportedly told police ‘I’ve been drinking all day’
Published 5:30 pm Friday, August 20, 2021
- rich wolf with friend
The 19-year-old Bend man accused of manslaughter in the death of a cyclist this month allegedly gave himself up right away.
When contacted by officers at Seventh Mountain Resort, about a half-mile from the scene of the fatal collision, Flynn David Lovejoy reportedly said, “I was the one who hit the guy on the bike. I’ve been drinking all day while fishing, and I’m drunk.”
Lovejoy made his first court appearance Friday in Deschutes County Circuit Court.
Prosecutor Mara Houck read his statement to Oregon State Police to the court. The Bend native is accused of being drunk when he drove.
The day after the incident, Lovejoy posted $12,000 and was released from Deschutes County jail.
With Lovejoy out on bail while he awaits trial, the state requested he wear an ankle monitor for alcohol.
“Clearly, the general legal prohibition against 19-year-olds consuming alcohol did not prevent Mr. Lovejoy from consuming alcohol this particular day,” said Houck, who supported the request by outlining the state’s case against Lovejoy.
On Aug. 10, Rich Wolf, 61, was cycling into town on Cascade Lakes Highway, seven miles southwest of Bend, a half-mile from Seventh Mountain Resort. Lovejoy was driving a Toyota Land Cruiser in the same direction.
“Preliminary crash reconstruction indicates that Mr. Lovejoy swerved almost into the ditch, onto the shoulder, and on his way back onto the roadway, struck Mr. Wolf,” Houck said.
Wolf suffered “massive” physical trauma. A chiropractor who called 911 told the operator he did not feel comfortable performing CPR. “He did not see the point,” Houck said.
Wolf’s bicycle and helmet were broken and spread up to 150 feet down the road.
Police say when they located Lovejoy, there was damage on his Land Cruiser consistent with hitting a cyclist. He smelled strongly of alcohol, had poor balance and was “taking care to speak slowly and deliberately,” Houck said.
He reportedly consented to providing a blood sample to test for intoxicants. The state is awaiting those results.
Lovejoy’s attorney, Bryan Donahue, objected to the ankle monitor provision, saying his client had been admitted to an outpatient addiction treatment center in Coburg, Serenity Lane, which doesn’t allow patients to wear the monitors.
Donahue disagreed his client being under 21 was relevant to his release conditions.
“I’m not sure why the state think’s that’s an exceptional fact,” he said.
In the end, Judge Raymond Crutchley did not require the ankle monitor, provided Lovejoy remain enrolled in the addiction program. Other conditions include a prohibition on consuming alcohol and going to bars.
Wolf’s wife attended Friday’s hearing remotely, though she chose not to speak.
Wolf kept a home in Bend and one in Klamath Falls, where he worked as a senior manager at Jeld-Wen. He was serious about cyclocross and track racing, and a longtime member of Sunnyside Sports Cycling Team.
Before the pandemic, teammates would regularly pile into vehicles and caravan to Portland to compete in cyclocross events, according to team member Karen Kenlan.
“You get to spend a lot of time with your teammates not racing,” she said. “I have a lot of good memories of Rich. A lot of good memories.
“If you ask anyone on our team, they’d all tell you Rich was the friendliest, nicest, greatest guy in the world.”
For a time, Wolf was a teammate of Marika Stone, the Bend dentist killed by an impaired driver while riding with friends on Dodds Road northeast of Bend in December 2017.
“To lose two teammates in three years is traumatic. It shouldn’t happen to anyone,” Kenlan said.
Kenlan is helping raise money on a GoFundMe page to run ads against drunk and drugged driving in Wolf’s honor.
The woman who killed Stone, Shantel Witt, swore at Stone’s friends and lamented cyclists being “all over the road.” Witt’s callousness helped earn her a conviction for first-degree manslaughter.
In 2017, Jonathan Chase Adams was hit and killed by a FedEx driver, Trent Sage, near downtown Bend.