SDPD officer pleads not guilty to DUI crash

San Diego police officer David Hall, right, with his attorney Cole Casey, pleaded not guilty in May in San Diego Superior Court to charges of drunken driving causing injury and felony hit and run. The charges stemmed from a collision in February in Serra Mesa.
— John Gibbins

San Diego police officer David Hall, right, with his attorney Cole Casey, pleaded not guilty in May in San Diego Superior Court to charges of drunken driving causing injury and felony hit and run. The charges stemmed from a collision in February in Serra Mesa.
— John Gibbins

San Diego  A San Diego police officer pleaded not guilty Monday to charges of drunken driving causing injury and felony hit and run.

The charges against David Hall stem from a crash that occurred about 7:30 p.m. on Feb. 22 on Murray Ridge Road in Serra Mesa. The 41-year-old motorcycle officer is accused of causing the crash that injured one woman and then leaving the collision scene.

At Monday’s arraignment, Superior Court Judge David Szumowski ordered Hall begin attending Alcoholics Anonymous meetings a couple of times a week while the case proceeds. A preliminary hearing was scheduled for June 30.

Deputy District Attorney Matt Williams declined to provide details about the collision, including identifying who the victim was. Hall’s attorney, Cole Casey, did not respond to a request for comment after the hearing.

Williams said Hall is facing two charges of felony drunken driving causing injury, one charge of hit and run, and an allegation that his blood alcohol was greater than 0.15. That charge can increase Hall’s sentence if he is convicted.

Williams declined to disclose what Hall’s blood-alcohol level was, but his attorney said last month that police reports from the incident said the officer’s level was 0.32 percent — four times more than the legal limit of 0.08 percent for driving drunk.

The police log from the night of the crash said that a woman driving a gray Chevrolet Suburban told a 911 dispatcher that she “thinks she was just hit by a DUI driver.” She described the vehicle that hit her as a brown GMC. A man who witnessed the crash recorded the vehicle’s license-plate number.

Casey has described Hall as a veteran officer with a clean record with the Police Department.

Hall is one of five San Diego police officers under investigation or facing criminal charges for various alleged crimes, including rape, seeking sexual favors at traffic stops, stalking and domestic battery.