NoVA Woman Pleads Guilty To Causing Death Of British Teenager

NORTHERN VIRGINIA — A U.S. intelligence agency employee from Northern Virginia pleaded guilty Thursday in the death of a British teenager on a road near a military base in England in August 2019, bringing some closure to the family of the teenager.

Anne Sacoolas was driving her Volvo SUV on the wrong side of the road near RAF Croughton, a military base used by the Central Intelligence Agency, when she crashed into Harry Dunn, a 19-year-old who was riding his motorcycle, according to British prosecutors.

Sacoolas left the United Kingdom nearly three weeks after the deadly crash on Aug. 27, 2019, claiming diplomatic immunity from criminal prosecution, and the United States refused to extradite her.

Appearing in a London court by videolink from the United States last Thursday, Sacoolas, 45, pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of causing Dunn's death by careless driving.

The parents of Harry Dunn expressed some relief in response to Sacoolas's guilty plea. "Whether you kill somebody intentionally or unintentionally, as Anne Sacoolas did, accountability still needs to be had," Dunn's mother, Charlotte Charles, said in an interview with CBS Monday morning. "You can't simply decide to walk away and expect us to move forward as a family. We lost everything. We had everything taken from us."

But Charles also said she does not want to see Sacoolas, who has three children, go to prison over the death of her son.

"Absolutely from the beginning we said that we didn't want to separate her from her children," Charles said. "The judge has made it very clear in court in London on Thursday that the main way that Anne Sacoolas could show her most amount of remorse is by returning to the U.K. for sentencing and [the] judge made it very clear that the likeliness of having a jail sentence imposed is very, very slim."

READ ALSO: NoVA Woman Who Fled UK After Crash Could Face 'Virtual Trial'

Prior to leaving on their three-year assignment at RAF Croughton in 2019, the Sacoolas family reportedly lived in Vienna. By mid-September 2019, less than three weeks after the crash that killed Dunn, Sacoolas and her family reportedly left the country on a military flight to avoid prosecution. Upon returning to Northern Virginia, Sacoolas, a native of Aiken, South Carolina, and her family rented a house in Herndon.

In December 2019, Sacoolas was charged with causing death by dangerous driving. But an extradition request was rejected by the U.S. government a month later. Following a lengthy period of negotiations, it was agreed Saccolas could take part in the proceedings remotely from Virginia.

Last week, British prosecutors accepted her guilty plea to the lesser charge. Sacoolas is scheduled to be sentenced at the end of November, and the British judge ordered her to attend the sentencing in person.

After the legal case was conducted remotely, "it was audible gasps all around the court when the judge in London said she had to come back for sentencing," Charles said in the interview with CBS.

"I was completely shocked. I was not expecting that. We were just expecting that it would be done remotely like the court appearance had been," Tim Dunn, Harry's father, told CBS.

The lesser charge that Sacoolas admitted to — causing a death by careless driving — carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison. But guidelines suggest a form of community service or a shorter prison term.

Dunn’s parents filed a wrongful death lawsuit in September 2020 against Sacoolas and her husband Jonathan in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia in Alexandria. In September 2021, the family reached an agreement with Sacoolas, according to a federal court order.

During the civil proceeding, the U.S. government wanted to keep secret the employment details of Sacoolas. Lawyers for the U.S. government filed a motion in the U.S. District Court, arguing that the details of Sacoolas' employment should not be released in the interests of "national security."

It is unclear whether Sacoolas will return to London for her sentencing hearing. The judge in the case urged Sacoolas to come back to the U.K. to be sentenced in person, but admitted she had no power to force her.

“I do very much hope that she listens to the judge’s words and makes the effort to come back because that will truly show us all how remorseful she is," Charles told reporters.