A rally for safer streets and justice in the killing of a father/husband/triathlete/popular South County teacher is set for Saturday morning outside Laguna Niguel City Hall, according to the lawyer for the deceased’s widow.
Scott Clark was jogging in preparation of an Iron Man competition around 6:20 p.m. on Jan. 25, 2017, when he entered a crosswalk on Alicia Boulevard, just as two vehicles collided near Alicia and Niguel Road. A Mini Cooper clipped a Mercedes Benz, which struck Clark. He died at Mission Hospital on Feb. 8, 2017, leaving behind a wife, two grown children and grieving colleagues and students in the Capistrano Unified School District, where Clark had taught for 20 years.
WIFE SEEKS JUSTICE FOR TRIATHLETE-TEACHER HUSBAND KILLED ON ROADWAY
The night of the collision, sheriff’s deputies arrested then-34-year-old Jamie Nicole Mulford on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon (the Mini Cooper) and felony driving under the influence. That marked Mulford’s fourth DUI-related incident, including one in Los Angeles County that resulted in the death of a pedestrian.
LA County prosecutors did not charge Mulford in that incident, and an Orange County judge in January dismissed a gross vehicular manslaughter case against her.
Richard T. Welsh, the Tustin lawyer representing the late teacher’s wife Christy Clark, says that they were ensured by district attorney Todd Spitzer that the investigation is continuing in hopes of obtaining justice in the tragedy. Spitzer and prosecutor Ebrahim Baytieh had met with Welsh and Mrs. Clark on the eve of the case’s dismissal.
[A CLOCKWORK ORANGE:] NOT FADE AWAY
In a letter to the Weekly, Welsh shared a troubling development.
“Following the dismissal of the charges in January, Jamie Mulford sued Scott Clark’s widow for Defamation and Intentional Infliction of Emotional Distress,” Welsh writes. “In a particularly cruel twist, Mrs. Clark received notice of this lawsuit on the 2nd year anniversary of Scott’s killing. That frivolous, baseless, and cruel lawsuit has since been dismissed with prejudice!”
Laguna Niguel City Hall, 30111 Crown Valley Pkwy., is just two blocks from the intersection where Scott Clark was killed. Rally participants are invited to join a march from the local government building to the spot where the deceased met his end. Folks will start gathering at 10 a.m. “We do so,” Welsh writes, “seeking to protect pedestrians, runners, riders and to keep public safety and criminal justice foremost in the minds of Orange County’s citizens and law enforcement.”
OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.
Thank you for publishing this. Christy Clark is my niece and this tragedy has been devastating to her and to her grown children. She is seeking justice for the cruelty of her husband’s death and for safety for her city’s streets. It is important to keep this active to get positive results. Once again, I thank you.