Bend cyclist, killed by drunk driver, remembered in packed sentencing hearing

Published 5:45 am Friday, June 16, 2023

It’s been nearly two years since Michele Decker-Wolf lost her husband, Richard Wolf, an avid cyclist killed by a drunken driver. The couple often enjoyed cycling together, but Decker-Wolf can’t bring herself to do that anymore.

On Thursday, Decker-Wolf, a nursing professor at Central Oregon Community College, stood in a packed courtroom for the sentencing of Flynn Lovejoy, the man who killed her husband of 23 years.

“I haven’t ridden my road bike since Rich was killed,” she said, holding tight to her composure. “I am too frightened.” Lovejoy, who was 19 when he struck Wolf, 61, on Aug. 10, 2021, pleaded guilty to criminally negligent homicide, as well as other lesser charges, on Thursday in Deschutes County Circuit Court. Judge Wells Ashby sentenced him to a maximum of 84 months in state prison and permanently revoked his driver’s license.

Through tears, Lovejoy described his decision to drive drunk as “ignorant” and “stupid.”

“It haunts me every day and will for the rest of my life,” he told the court. After he spoke, he turned toward Decker-Wolf and apologized, his face clearly swollen with tears.

Previous coverage: Suspect in cyclist death reportedly told police ‘I’ve been drinking all day’

He chose to get behind the wheel simply because he wanted to get home, he told the court. Authorities determined his blood alcohol content was 0.17.

“I had no intention to hurt anybody,” he said.

Incident happened near Seventh Mountain Resort

His case packed the courtroom with dozens of people, some standing around the edges. Wolf’s loved ones spoke about their memories with him, describing the Bend resident as a kind, generous man — the kind of guy who would wash your bike without asking, one woman recalled.

A senior manager at the manufacturing company Jeld-Wen, Wolf was riding his bike into town near Seventh Mountain Resort that day. Lovejoy, who was driving a Toyota Land Cruiser, swerved onto the shoulder of Cascade Lakes Highway, nearly driving into a ditch, prosecutors say. Lovejoy told police he had been fishing and drinking all day.

Bryan Donahue, Lovejoy’s defense attorney, said it was clear Lovejoy had made a terrible mistake. But he added, “Mr. Lovejoy is not evil. He is not a monster.”

Mara Houck, a deputy district attorney, had a different assessment: “Mistake is just another word for a choice,” she said. She added: “The result of those choices ended a life.”

Victim well-known in cycling community

Wolf was well-known in Bend’s sizable biking community. That was made clear by the dozens of people who gathered at the courthouse Thursday to remember him and raise awareness around drunken driving tragedies.

During victim impact statements, many of Wolf’s loved ones — some of whom wore biking gear — called for more stringent laws to curb drunken driving. Some had personally been hit by intoxicated or distracted drivers themselves, they told The Bulletin.

Increased charges: Driver who killed cyclist now charged with first-degree manslaughter

One woman spoke about losing her own father when she was 10 to a drunken driver, and still thinks about it 60 years later.

Wolf is not the only cyclist to be killed this way in Bend in recent years. Marika Stone, a local dentist who was once Wolf’s cycling teammate, was also killed by an impaired driver while riding with friends on Dodds Road northeast of Bend in December 2017.

Wife describes Wolf as humble

Some of Stone’s loved ones attended Thursday’s sentencing. Carrie Carney, 48, was with Stone when she was killed and told the court: “There’s not a day I wake up that I don’t think of her.” Tansy Brown, Stone’s identical twin sister, called on judges to impose stricter penalties for drunken driving.

“There’s no amount of jail or prison time that will ever bring back Rich,” said Brown.

Wolf was a cautious cyclist and always took pains to be courteous to passing motorists, his wife told The Bulletin. “He was not a risk-taker,” said Decker-Wolf. She described him as humble, quiet and shy, until you got him talking. Indeed, they had been married for years before he mentioned that he had once thrown javelin at the Olympic Trials.

They did everything together. They had no children but were often busy, biking, golfing, hiking and taking road trips. They had worked hard throughout their lives, saved up and were planning for post-career life. Decker-Wolf had already retired from her full-time job at the college, just two months before her husband was killed.

After his death, she returned to teach at the college. She said in court that it was a way to keep going, and that losing Wolf felt like she was starting over. She felt like she had lost a part of her soul.

“That transition now for me is going to be a lot harder, trying to sort out, Who am I now without Rich?” she told The Bulletin.

Donning a white cardigan and a blue and white dress, Decker-Wolf spoke steadily in front of the packed courtroom, near a group of people who had supported her with letters and visits.

“They did not shy away from my grief,” she said.

Only when Decker-Wolf finished speaking to the court did her composure fail. She sat down, leaned her head against a loved one’s shoulder and began to cry.