Lacy investigation at standstill

By Nicholas Grube

Triplicate staff writer

The California Attorney General's Office now controls a tangent in the Josh Lacy hit-and-run investigation.

Officials there will determine what to do with a report forwarded to them by the California Highway Patrol regarding a potentially damaging leak in the case.

In August, allegations surfaced that someone involved with law enforcement may have provided a person of interest details of the investigation that only CHP and Del Norte County District Attorney officials would have known. At that time, the District Attorney's Office turned over the leak investigation to the CHP.

"The case is under investigation by the Attorney General's Office," said Crescent City Area CHP Sgt. Bill Fletcher. He would not provide details on the results of the CHP's probe other than it was "a criminal matter under investigation."

Supervising Deputy Attorney General Joyce Blair confirmed that the investigation into the leak has been forwarded to her office, but said she could not release any other information until action is taken.

"At this point, no action has been taken on it," Blair said about the leak in the Lacy case.

Meanwhile, there have been no significant breakthroughs in finding the driver who struck 15-year-old Josh Lacy, who died in a Portland, Ore., hospital on Jan. 13, one day after he was hit on U.S. Hwy. 101 in Crescent City.

"It's at a standstill right now," Sgt. Fletcher said. "We've followed all the leads that we can follow." But he added his officers still hold weekly meetings to discuss the case.

The perceived lack of movement in the investigation, though, frustrates the Lacy family, who wait every day to hear something that might bring them closure.

"The whole let's wait and see approach, that hasn't worked up to this point," Josh's mother, Carlene Lacy, said. "I don't understand why it's at a standstill."

Carlene said the longer the investigation drags on, the less likely it is that someone will be caught and held accountable for her son's death.

"We don't know what we can do," she said. "We feel helpless."

And the fact that no one has come forward to admit to killing her child has permanently scarred Carlene Lacy and her family.

"Our faith in humanity is gone," she said. "The whole cliche that people are good ... that all went out the window that morning."

All the driver needed to do was stop, Carlene said, and her son, her Joshua, would probably still be alive today.

"We're always going to wonder what things are like without him," Carlene said as she cried. "It's a part of our life now. There isn't a day that goes by that I don't cry.

"It's not something that you get over. This is our pain. This is what's in our life now. There is no cure for it. There's no magic pill that can take the pain away."

Help find the driver

Anyone with any information regarding the Josh Lacy case should contact the California Highway Patrol at 707-464-3117. CHP also asks that anyone who comes across an abandoned vehicle that might look like the one that hit Josh to call them at the same number. The vehicle was described as a red or maroon color with damage to the front end.