Alleged DUI driver charged with murder in Ventura deputy’s death

A driver who was allegedly drunk when police say he fatally struck a Ventura County sheriff’s deputy along the 101 Freeway was charged Thursday with murder, prosecutors said.

Kevin Hogrefe, 25, of Camarillo, was also charged with felony hit and run in connection with the death Tuesday of Deputy Eugene Kostiuchenko, Ventura County Dist. Atty. Gregory Totten announced.

Hogrefe was scheduled to be arraigned Thursday afternoon. He was being held in lieu of $150,000 bail, but Totten said in a statement that prosecutors would request a larger bail of $500,000 “based upon the gravity of the charges.”

Kostiuchenko, 41, had just completed a traffic stop about 1:15 a.m. Tuesday and was walking back to his vehicle when he was struck and killed instantly, Ventura County sheriff’s officials said.

The driver, later identified as Hogrefe, narrowly missed hitting two other deputies who were assisting with the traffic stop near Lewis Road, sheriff’s officials said. Investigators allege Hogrefe didn’t stop, and instead sped off before crashing his vehicle near Las Posas Road.

Ventura County Superior Court records showed Hogrefe was cited in 2009 for driving at an unsafe speed. The case was dismissed after he attended traffic school.

Kostiuchenko, a married father of two sons, was an 11-year veteran assigned to the Camarillo sheriff’s station.

He was one of four California law enforcement officers killed in the line of duty in less than a week.

On Friday, two sheriff’s deputies from Sacramento and Placer counties were killed during a gunman’s rampage through Northern California. The suspected shooter and his wife have been charged with murder in the deaths of Deputy Danny Oliver and Det. Michael Davis Jr.

And on Tuesday, a Pomona SWAT officer was fatally wounded while serving a search warrant at a San Gabriel home as part of an investigation into a motorcycle gang. Officer Shaun Diamond was struck in the back of the head and died of his injuries Wednesday.

Los Angeles County prosecutors announced Thursday that they had charged that suspect, described as a member of the Mongols Motorcycle Club, with capital murder in Diamond’s death.

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