Ex-Red Hot Chili Peppers guitarist Josh Klinghoffer pleads not guilty to vehicular manslaughter after allegedly killing pedestrian

nypost.com:

A wrongful death suit filed by Sanchez’s family in July against Klinghoffer alleges the musician was using a cell phone and driving a car with no plates when the accident took place.

The lawsuit also claims that there is video evidence suggesting Klinghoffer “was likely driving while distracted” and “made no braking or slowing motion until after he fatally struck” Sanchez.However, a source close to the investigation told The Post on Thursday that the police have determined there was no cell phone involved in the cause of the accident.An attorney for Sanchez’s family pushed back after Thursday’s hearing, saying that in video evidence, Klinghoffer “appears to be holding a phone” as he drives past a business near the site of the accident “seconds” before the collision.“If they have exculpatory evidence, it’s never been presented to us,” Grayson Yoder told Rolling Stone.“All I can see is what I see on the video.

If he says he’s not on his phone, fine. But it’s the middle of the day, he’s coming into an intersection and there are no brake lights on his vehicle, none, not until a man is hit in the crosswalk.” “I’m skeptical of exculpatory evidence, and I can’t speak to the DA and their charges, but at the end of the day, in broad daylight, he had many, many opportunities for this not to have happened,” Yoder added. “There’s no other word for it besides negligence.

We allege that it’s gross negligence.”The charge against Klinghoffer put forth by the LA County DA does not, however, allege gross negligence, as court documents viewed by The Post confirm. “It was a tragic accident,” Klinghoffer’s attorney, Andrew Brettler, said in a statement in July. “After Josh struck this pedestrian in the intersection, he immediately pulled.