DUI Homicide charges filed against Joseph Valley for killing man on bicycle and fleeing like a coward, leaving the man to die on the side of the road

CHARGES FILED IN CYCLIST DEATH

Tim Ward, Tulare County District Attorney

Tulare County District Attorney Tim Ward has announced criminal charges against Joseph Valley, 27, of Springville, related to the death of a cyclist near Springville on November 7, 2017.
Valley is charged with gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated and hit and run
driving resulting in death or serious bodily injury to another person.
Valley was arraigned on the charges at the county pre-trial facility Nov 9, 2017, and will
return to court for a preliminary hearing setting on November 17, 2017, in Department 17
of the Tulare County Superior Court, South County Justice Center.

From Visalia Times-Delta

A Springville man is dead after he was hit and killed while his biking through Tulare County’s rural hillside.

THE FACE OF A KILLER & COWARD – Joseph Valley charged with DUI homicide in the death of a bicyclist in Tulare County Calif. CHP arrest Nov. 8, 2017

This week, District Attorney Tim Ward filed criminal charges against 27-year-old Joseph Valley of Springville.

Valley is believed to have been drunken driving on Tuesday when he hit the man, near Springville.

He fled the scene before first responders arrived but was later arrested by California Highway Patrol officers, investigators said.

Valley’s bail was set at $145,000.

He is charged with gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated and hit-and-run driving, resulting in death or serious bodily injury to another person.

The charges were followed by Ward’s announcement of a $153,620 California Office of Traffic Safety grant. The grant will be used to help prosecute cases of drunken and impaired drivers.

Cases of driving under the influence of drugs have increased 150 percent over the last two years, prosecutors said. Filed cases of DUI with injury have increased since 2015.

The office is currently prosecuting seven DUI homicide cases, prosecutors said.  MORE

Porterville Recorder: