LONDON — Anne Sacoolas, the American accused of killing British teenager Harry Dunn while driving on the wrong side of an English road, is scheduled to face a criminal trial in Britain next month, but it’s unclear how or whether the diplomatic dispute that has held up the case has been resolved.
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On Monday, more than two years after the fatal collision of Aug. 27, 2019, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said the case would be heard on Jan. 18 at the Westminster Magistrates’ Court. Sacoolas has been charged with death by dangerous driving.
The announcement that she would face justice was cheered by Britain’s foreign secretary, as well as the family of 19-year-old Dunn.
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But prosecutors wouldn’t say how the case would proceed — whether Sacoolas had agreed to appear in person, though she fled Britain soon after the collision and claimed diplomatic immunity, or whether she would appear virtually, as had been floated by the British Foreign Ministry.
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The Trump administration had refused Britain’s extradition request, and the Biden administration has said it would not revisit that decision.
Asked if Sacoolas would physically appear in court, the CPS declined to comment. It said in a statement, “While the challenges and complexity of this case are well known, we remain committed to securing justice in this matter.”
Meanwhile, Sacoolas’s lawyers denied British media reports that she would appear via video link.
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“While we have always been willing to discuss a virtual hearing, there is no agreement at this time,” a spokeswoman for the Arnold & Porter law firm told The Washington Post in an emailed statement.
On the night of the collision, Dunn was riding his motorcycle near Royal Air Force Croughton station, a U.S. Air Force installation to which Sacoolas, her diplomat husband and their children had recently moved.
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Sacoolas, through her lawyers, has admitted to driving on the wrong side of the road and said she “had no time to react when she saw the motorbike — the crash happened too fast.”
Three weeks later, while an investigation was ongoing, she and her family left Britain to return to the United States. The U.S. government asserted diplomatic immunity on her behalf as the wife of a diplomat. Her lawyer has also said that she had been working as a U.S. intelligence officer.
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Dunn’s family filed a lawsuit against Sacoolas in U.S. District Court in Virginia, claiming wrongful death and seeking financial damages. That case was settled in September.
The British case is a criminal rather than civil one.
British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said Monday that it was “welcome news that Anne Sacoolas will face a U.K. court.”
“We continue to support the family to get justice for Harry Dunn,” she said.
The Dunn family said they had finally gotten what they had been pushing for.
“My family and I are feeling very emotional and overwhelmed, having just learned the news that Mrs. Sacoolas is now to face our justice system,” said Dunn’s mother, Charlotte Charles. “It is all that we asked for following Harry’s death.”