Woman pleads guilty to amended charge in 2020 fatal crash, given probation
Patricia L. Hobbs
Micky Clark is pictured with his dog Washdae. The dog was in Clark’s vehicle at the time of the crash and fled the area shortly after. There was a successful effort to find and return the dog to Clark’s fiancé in the days following the crash.
Missouri State Highway Patrol arrested Hobbs at the scene of this Feb. 17, 2020, collision that occurred on Highway 5 about a half mile south of W Highway. Michael Clark died of injuries sustained in the crash after being transported to Baxter Regional Medical Center. Patricia Hobbs was originally charged with driving while intoxicated, causing the death of Clark; however, she pleaded guilty to an amended charge of assault and was given probation after attorneys agreed that a seizure caused the crash instead.
In a surprising turn of events, Patricia L. Hobbs, previously charged with driving while intoxicated with drugs causing the death of 59-year-old Michael “Micky” Clark in a Feb. 17, 2020, crash on Highway 5, pleaded guilty by Alford plea to an amended charge of second-degree assault during the Aug. 3 Law Day. An Alford plea means Hobbs does not admit guilt but believes that the evidence would cause a jury to convict her.
She was given 5 years probation and a suspended execution of sentence, meaning she does not have to serve the prison sentence immediately. If the judge determines she’s violated her probation enough times before she completes probation, he can enact the sentence.
The online docket entry for the hearing explains:
“The court finds good cause for the amendment of the charges in this case, as the parties agree the evidence shows that the state could not show intoxication. The parties further agree that the evidence shows that the probable cause of the incident was a seizure-type medical issue suffered by the defendant at the time of the accident. Accordingly, the court finds the amendment of the information taken pursuant to good cause.”
When questioned about the abrupt change of charges more than two years after the incident, Ozark County Prosecuting Attorney Matthew Weatherman said that the shift came when the attorneys in the case recently conducted depositions (witnesses sworn testimony out-of-court) from a witness on scene and Missouri State Highway Patrol Trooper Dakota Nash. Online records show that those depositions were noticed to the court July 12.
“We had done a deposition with Karen Broederdorf [the witness] and the trooper, and I also talked to a chemist… the injuries were so severe to both parties that at the crash they weren’t able to conduct much in the way of field sobriety tests with the exception of a horizontal gaze nystagmus, but she had a head injury,” Weatherman explained. “When they presented the medical reports to me, and it showed that she had a seizure disorder, I realized we weren’t going to be able to make a case for intoxication at the time of the crash.”
Weatherman said that Hobbs has an Arkansas license, and the Arkansas Department of Revenue will likely take some course of action concerning her license, but he wasn’t sure what that would be.
According to the report, the crash occurred at 3:50 p.m. when Hobbs, driving a 1996 Chevrolet Silverado, the white truck pictured in the photo above left, crossed the center of the roadway and struck head-on a gray 2005 Toyota Tundra driven northbound by Clark.
Hobbs was also transported to Baxter Regional Medical Center (now Baxter Health) in Mountain Home, Arkansas, with what the report describes as serious injuries. Hobbs was wearing a seat belt, according to the report; Clark was not. Both vehicles were totaled.
Hobbs also pleaded guilty in a separate case to possession of a controlled substance. She was also given 5 years probation and a suspended imposition of sentence, also meaning she does not have to serve a prison sentence - but the judge can enact it if she violates probation.
The difference between the suspended imposition of sentence (SIS) and suspended execution of sentence (SES) is that the SIS will be taken off Hobbs’ record if she successfully completes probation. The SES will remain on her record.