Staff writer
No charges will be filed after a Ramona man, previously accused of child endangerment and drunken driving, drove over and killed his 1-year-old daughter.
County attorney Joel Ensey announced his decision after the newspaper obtained a copy of an accident that had been withheld by the sheriff’s department in January.
According to the accident report, obtained Monday at the newspaper’s request, Benjamin J. Thompson, 32, Ramona, was driving a 2004 Mazda MPV in his yard in the 500 block of N. B St. in Ramona when the Mazda struck his daughter, Abigayle D. Thompson, 1.
The Thompsons rushed her to Herington Hospital, where Herington police met them to get information about the accident.
Deputy Aaron Christner’s report said Herington police did not note any signs that Thompson might have been impaired by alcohol or drugs. No tests were done.
From Herington, Abigayle was airlifted to Children’s Mercy Hospital in Kansas City, Missouri, where she died two days later.
Ensey said an autopsy showed the cause of death was traumatic brain injury.
Ensey said he had not been sent a report by the attorney general’s child death review board.
John Milburn, spokesman for the attorney general’s office, said the review board’s findings are published in an annual report each October.
Milburn said the report for child deaths in 2022 would be published by Oct. 1, 2024.
Thompson was charged March 19, 2021, with aggravated endangering of a child for using a child as a shield during a confrontation with deputies, along with interference with law enforcement, domestic battery, and battery of a law enforcement officer. A charge of kidnapping was added Dec. 17. Charges in that case stemmed from a March 2021 incident.
He was previously charged June 26, 2020, with driving under the influence, possession of marijuana, transporting an open container of alcohol, driving while his license was canceled, having no proof of insurance, and driving with invalid registration. All of those charges are misdemeanors.
Those cases are not yet resolved in court.