Family of U.K. teen killed in crash with U.S. woman suffering "beyond belief" as trial set to resume in Virginia
London — The family of Harry Dunn, a 19-year-old motorcyclist who was killed in a head-on collision with an American driver outside a British military base, have told CBS News they continue to "suffer beyond belief" as a Virginia court pushes forward with legal proceedings in a civil case against their son's alleged killer.
Judge Thomas Ellis will reportedly set a timetable this week for the suspect, 43-year-old Anne Sacoolas, to give evidence in a deposition ahead of a trial later this year.
Sacoolas' lawyers have said they intend to ask the court to dismiss the case and will instead offer to pay compensation to the family amounting to the costs of Dunn's funeral.
Ellis has already dismissed an earlier motion from Sacoolas's lawyers to dismiss substantive aspects of the civil claim, citing her "refusal" to return to the U.K. to face criminal charges there.
The Dunn family have also filed a claim for damages against Jonathan Sacoolas, citing a Virginia law under which they believe he could be held liable for allowing his wife to use the car she was driving outside a military base in the U.K. when she killed the teenager.
Anne Sacoolas has admitted that she was driving on the wrong side the road after she left her home on the RAF Croughton military base in central England.
She has been charged by British authorities with causing death by dangerous driving, which carries a maximum sentence of 16 years in prison.
An extradition request submitted to the U.S. by the U.K.'s Home Office, however, was rejected by the State Department in January 2020.
Lawyers acting on behalf of Sacoolas have said that both she and her husband worked for the U.S. State Department at the time of the crash, and they admit that they "fled" from the U.K. due to "issues of security."
Britain's Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab has reportedly raised the case with his new U.S. counterpart, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, but a State Department spokesman called the previous administration's decision to refuse extradition "final."
