Driver Involved In Crash With Ventura County Sheriff's K-9 Unit Pleads Not Guilty

Wednesday December 27, 2023

(Photos courtesy VCSO)

     Updated--The driver blamed for the crash that sent a Ventura County Sheriff's K-9 vehicle over the side of Pacific Coast Highway December 16, 2023 has pleaded not guilty.

     25-year-old Gerardo Escalante of Santa Paula is charged with DUI causing injury and driving with a blood alcohol level of at least .08 percent causing injury, both felonies.

     He is also charged with a misdemeanor of unlawful operation of a vehicle.

     Escalante was in court Wednesday and pleaded not guilty to all of those charges..

     He also denied several special allegations including having prior DUI and other convictions plus being on probation for DUI at the time of the crash.

     On the night of the crash, witnesses told the CHP that Escalante was driving southbound on PCH near Deer Creek Road when he made a U-turn in his Mercedes and started driving the wrong way, northbound in the southbound lanes.

     Around that time, a Ventura County Sheriff's K-9 patrol unit was southbound on PCH heading to a suspicious subject call at Neptune's Net when Deputy Castaneda tried to avoid the wrong way vehicle but was hit and pushed over the side of the highway to the rocks below.

     The deputy and his K-9 partner "Danny" were rescued from their vehicle and taken to VCMC with minor injuries.

     Escalante received minor injuries in the crash and was also taken to VCMC where he was treated and then booked into the Ventura County Jail and then released on bail until his rearrest several days later after charges were filed.

      He remains in the Ventura County Jail with bail set at $500,000 and has a bail review hearing set for Tuesday.