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Palo Alto Online

SUV strikes partygoer -- twice

by Grace Rauh

A Saturday night party in Palo Alto became a monstrous nightmare when a fight broke out and one partygoer struck another twice with an SUV.

The victim, a 23-year-old Palo Alto man, was in critical condition at Stanford Hospital Monday after Santa Cruz resident William Raymond Hill ran him over with a white 2002 Chevrolet Tahoe early Sunday morning, police said. The victim's name was withheld because family members had not been notified of his condition.

Hill,21, was arrested for attempted homicide and is being held in San Jose Main Jail, according to Palo Alto police detective Lori Kratzer.

Details of what happened Saturday night during a party thrown by 18-year-old Jenny Stetson, whose parents were out of town, are uncertain. Around midnight on Sunday, 20 to 40 people from the party on the 2100 block of Cowper Street -- the same neighborhood where Steve Jobs and Steve Young live -- poured into the normally quiet residential street when a fight broke out.

It's unclear whether Hill and the victim were involved in the fight or whether the fight broke out inside or outside the house. While police said Hill and his friends knew someone at the party, neighbor Tom Plemons said he heard that Hill and his friends had crashed the party.

Hill added that Stetson was "trembling and crying" when he saw her on Sunday.

The fight ensued when Stetson and others wouldn't allow Hill to crash the party, Plemons said.

At some point, six partygoers climbed into the SUV before Hill struck the victim on the adjacent 400 block of Washington Avenue, according to Kratzer. Police are investigating whether the victim jumped onto the hood of the vehicle or if Hill ran into him.

After Hill drove away, a group of people dragged the injured man out of the street. But Hill made another pass, driving onto the curb and running over the victim, Kratzer said. Police are also investigating if Hill backed up and ran over him a third time.

No one in the car was from Palo Alto.

"I heard some people and then heard the ambulance and heard people crying," Plemons said. Plemons was awake in the family room when the commotion began, but didn't walk outside because he didn't realize the severity of the incident.

The SUV was stopped by a patrol officer less than a mile from the party on Colorado Avenue, according to Kratzer. It appeared as though the group was trying to find their way out of Palo Alto, she said.

Police believe that alcohol or illegal drugs were involved in the incident.

Police blocked off the Washington Avenue block until 2 p.m. Sunday to conduct their investigation, according to Plemons.

Police are still investigating the case and have asked for anyone with information to come forward.

The incident occurred only days after Gov. Gray Davis signed a bill into law that reflects a mounting concern for teenagers' misuse of alcohol and drugs. The law, which goes into effect Jan. 1, 2004, would allow misdemeanor criminal penalties for parents who allow minors to consume alcohol in their home, when the consumption leads to a car accident.

Assemblyman Joe Simitian (D-Palo Alto), who introduced the legislation, immediately thought of it when he read about the local party.

"Here we are again with alcohol, young people, and cars in a disastrous mix," Simitian said.

A San Carlos substance abuse counselor entered her idea for the bill in the assemblyman's "There Oughta Be A Law" contest last year.

Simitian said he was uncertain whether the law would be invoked in an incident like this, where both Hill and the victim are of legal drinking age.

E-mail Grace Rauh at grauh@paweekly.com