BY MAIRE O’NEILL
maire@losalamosreporter.com
More than 19 months after a tragic crash that resulted in the death of Charles McMillan, former director of Los Alamos National Lab, the driver who caused the crash was sentenced Tuesday in Los Alamos Municipal Court by Judge Elizabeth Allen.
Nadia Lopez, who was 22 at the time of the crash, her attorney William Snowden, and Dori Biagianti Smith, the contract prosecutor for Los Alamos County all attended the sentencing hearing via Zoom. In the courtroom were Judge Allen, Janet McMillan and her civil attorney Kevin Martinez, Court staff and two local reporters.
Biagianti Smith announced the terms of a plea and disposition agreement and noted that Mrs. McMillan would like to say a few words when appropriate. Lopez was charged with speeding 11-15 mph over the limit, careless driving with accident, and improper lane. Biagianti Smith noted that Lopez had taken a defensive driving test and turned in the certificate of completion to the Court.
Judge Allen stated that because the three citations are all charged with an accident, it takes it out of the penalty assessment. She said potentially the Court could assess a $500 fine on each citation. The terms of each offense are laid out in the plea and disposition agreement, which was not yet available at Court time.
Mrs. McMillan approached the podium and addressed Lopez and those in the Court session.
“September 6, 2024 was a tragedy for all. Nadia and I are the lucky ones and we are still here. Charlie was not as lucky and he was crushed by the impact of the head-on collision. You may not remember, Nadia, but I came to check on you after the collision as well. I’m a nurse and I worked in critical care for many years. I know accidents are not kind events,” she said.
Mrs. McMillan described her husband as one of the most brilliant, thoughtful and kind men she has have ever known. They met in ninth grade, dated in high school and through college and got married after college graduation. She said she had the she had the privilege of sharing life with him for 47 years and that they were still very much in love.
“Charlie was the 10th director of Los Alamos National Laboratory. After retirement from the Lab, he worked on review committees for Sandia Labs and was a mentor for the management classes that Los Alamos National Lab conducts for their up and coming candidates for higher level positions, to make sure they are prepared,” Mrs. McMillan said. “He was on the boards of several start-up companies. Thom Mason, the current director of Los Alamos National Lab, had recently tasked him with a new job. He called while we were on vacation in Belize, and he worried that it wouldn’t go very well when he heard we were snorkeling, but he asked Charlie to work on a project visiting the 17 Labs across the United States that do various government projects.”
She said Mason wanted Charlie to talk to the various labs about their artificial intelligence technology and find out whether they were using it yet, or what they anticipated their needs might be.
“With that that technology, you need a lot of computing power. He knew they would probably need more equipment and more computers to manage it,” Mrs. McMillan said.” At the time of the accident, he had visited all but three Labs, so he was winding up the project….Thom asked Charlie because he knew a lot of the directors already. He was working on that and he was also working on consulting on various issues for national security.”
“I’m a mother of three young kids, a little older than you, Nadia,” she said. “When I wondered what I would want somebody to say to one of my daughters, were she in such a position as you are. There are three principles that my husband always lived by from the time I met him, and I would like to share them with you. The first thing is to always do your best. Most things in life are difficult before they get easier, so persevere. The second, is to always remember that as a team player you can accomplish a whole lot more with a team than all by yourself. This usually involves a degree of flexibility amongst everybody, but it may see a more impactful result. The third is to always tell the people in your life, whom you love, that you love them, and tell them every day. Don’t ever assume that they just know, but tell them.”
Lastly, Mrs. McMillan told Lopez she was sure that Lopez didn’t get up that morning in September and think about getting into an accident.
“I know you were trying to get to work on time; however, it didn’t quite work out that way. I encourage you to remember to always be safe; don’t be distracted or in a hurry when you are driving. I hope this sobering event reminds all of us today to be more careful drivers and to always remember it is best to arrive alive,” she said.
When Judge Allen asked Lopez if there was something she wanted to say, she responded that she just wanted to say thank you to Mrs. McMillan and that she will think about what she had said.
Judge Allen asked Lopez if since the accident, she had done anything like gotten treatment or anything to support her. Lopez said she did go to therapy but that she has a very hard time opening up about stuff and had been mostly talking to friends and family to get her through.
Judge Allen said she wanted to acknowledge the fact that the Court system in cases like this can’t solve all the problems.
“We can’t bring anyone back and we can’t necessarily change anything, but one thing the Court can do is address what is before me. I agree to the plea agreement. I’m going to sentence based on the plea agreement, however, I’m just going to double-check your driving record before I determine what the fines and fees should be,” she said. Looking at Lopez’s past record, Judge Allen said it looked like she had a speeding back in 2024.
“I’m glad you took the driving class already and I acknowledge that. Something we often tell our Teen Court kids is, ‘Don’t let the decision you made on your worst day define how you recover from it, and how you can give back to the community’. I’m going to assess full fines on each one of these citations – a $500 fine on each one. There will be a $36 Court fee. If you cannot pay that, I would ask that you complete 67 hours of community service in lieu of paying those fines and fees,” Judge Allen said. “For every hour of community service it would be $24 off. It’s up to you if you want to pay money of just do the community service, but I would rather that you give back to the community and spend that time in community service.”
Judge Allen said the Court was imposing 90 days in jail with 90 days suspended and 90 days of unsupervised probation as per plea agreement and Judge Allan told Lopez is she picks up a traffic violation within the next 90 days, she can expect that the case would come before her again and she could “assess the remaining time in jail”.