Jail Time Mounts for Malibu Ferrari Crash Passenger: 240 Days So Far

• Irish National Who Snuck Back into the United States Makes Multiple Court Appearances

BY ANNE SOBLE

The passenger in the rare red Enzo Ferrari that crashed on Pacific Coast Highway in February 2006 and achieved instant international media notoriety has not only had his day in court, but several of them where he has so far racked up 240 days in jail time and three years’ probation on an array of charges.

Trevor Karney, 27, allegedly crossed the Mexican border illegally during the summer and quickly found himself in the long arm of the law. A lengthy roster of misdemeanor charges has kept him in county jail since his arrest Aug. 8 in a Marina del Rey apartment.

Karney, who is now being held in the Twin Towers Correctional Facility, is facing five separate sentences: 180 days, 30 days and three consecutive ones at 10-days each, on charges ranging from giving false information to sheriff’s deputies at the crash scene, driving under the influence, driving with a suspended license, failure to appear in court and driving without plates.

Karney pled no contest on the sole charge related to the Ferrari crash—providing false information to law enforcement officers at the accident scene west of Trancas Canyon Road— which was prosecuted by the county district attorney before Judge Amy Hogue.

As extensive police and fire response converged on the remains of the crumpled Enzo on the morning of Feb. 21, last year, Karney corroborated a story by the man subsequently determined to be the Ferrari’s driver, Bo Stefan Eriksson, that the man at the wheel when the car crashed, a fictitious “Dietrich,” had fled the accident scene.

The false information sent sheriff’s deputies on a proverbial wild goose chase through adjacent areas. The arrival of men with identification alleging ties to federal homeland security operations created even more confusion and an ostensibly inebriated Eriksson was released without booking, a feat that major local entertainment celebrities have not been able to accomplish.

In addition to the determination that Eriksson was driving the Ferrari, he was charged with being under the influence. He is currently serving a three-year jail sentence for fraud related to the Enzo and three other high performance cars he brought into the United States from England.

According to Lt. Mike Siebert, public information officer at the California Men’s Colony in San Luis Obispo, Eriksson was signed out of that facility and sent to the Los Angeles County Jail to await a court appearance, but an L.A. County Sheriff’s Department spokesperson said the specifics of his status are not in the LASD database.

Karney’s five court appearances on the remainder of the charges brought by the Los Angeles City Attorney’s office were consolidated before Judge Melissa Widdifield, who added 180 days to his total jail time. He also faces at least 36 months probation.

According to Frank Mateljan in the City Attorney’s office, Karney was represented by a public defender and pled no contest on these charges. A second public defender handled the county case.

The City Attorney’s charges date back to 2005. When Karney was arrested last month, the list of warrants seemed to grow. That he had returned to Marina del Rey was not surprising, as he had given his address to deputies at the crash scene as a yacht docked at the marina that was registered to Carl Freer, a partner of Eriksson’s in the now-defunct Gizmondo electronic game company.

These court appearances are not the last of Karney’s legal woes, as Orange County has placed a hold on bail for 2005 citations for speeding, not having insurance, refusing DUI tests and driving on a suspended license. Active warrants for his arrest are in the OC automatic warrant system.

Why Karney was in Orange County at that time raised other red flags, as a gun reportedly given by OC Sheriff Michael Carona to a member of his advisory council was found in Eriksson’s Bel Air mansion at the time of his arrest, along with police badges and other trappings from a private police/homeland security force that is under separate investigation.

Karney is also expected to undergo scrutiny by the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency for his alleged illegal entry into the United States through Tijuana.

After serving jail time, Karney may face the same fate that awaits Eriksson, a Swedish national who entered the country without reporting a prior felony conviction: deportation.

As for the supposed private homeland security operation packaged as a shuttle service for the elderly, the San Gabriel Valley Transit Authority, and based in a Monrovia auto repair shop, its head, Yosuf Maiwandi, 39, is slated for a court hearing on Oct. 1 to set a trial date on charges of improper use of a badge.

The investigation of the crash’s cast of players has still shed little light on what two men in a $1.5 million Enzo Ferrari, one of only 400 built, were up to when the slick supercar reached speeds of more than 160 miles per hour and careened into history.