King City traffic death received slightly more attention than previously reported

INVESTIGATIONS |

By Royal Calkins

Contradicting information reported in earlier Voices of Monterey Bay accounts, the Monterey County Sheriff’s Office file on the 2015 death of King City resident Aracely Zavala apparently is not missing as senior Sheriff’s Office officials said last year.

“We dug and dug” until we found it, Sheriff Tina Nieto said this week.

Zavala died on Jan. 29, 2015, when hit by a fast-moving sports utility vehicle driven by King City mortician Robert Eddington. Her family and several friends urged authorities to investigate the case as a possible homicide. They alleged that Zavala and Eddington had had a long, paid sexual relationship and that she was afraid of him because she had threatened to tell others about his sexual preferences unless he started paying her more. Eddington has denied knowing her and has maintained her death was an accident.

It also appears, based on information reportedly found in the file, that sheriff’s detective Martin Opseth may have done more work on the case than previously believed. Opseth, now retired, refuses to discuss the case, but others connected to the department say he sent reports to the District Attorney’s Office suggesting or requesting that Eddington be charged with involuntary manslaughter. No charges were filed

Eddington reportedly told Opseth that he was driving on Mesa Verde Road south of King City and was distracted by headlights on Highway 101, causing him to not see Zavala standing or walking on Mesa Verde well after dark. A California Highway Patrol officer who was involved in the early days of the investigation said that is not what Eddington told the CHP.

Although friends and relatives of Zavala said she had danced at parties attended by Eddington and repeatedly met with him at his funeral home, Opseth reportedly couldn’t find any evidence that they knew each other. A California Highway Patrol investigator who interviewed some of Zavala’s friends told the coroner’s division of the Sheriff’s Office that family and friends were saying the opposite. That information may never have reached Opseth.

Neither the Sheriff’s Office nor District Attorney’s Office would release copies of Opseth’s reports. Under California law, there is no prohibition on making investigative reports public but the agencies can choose to withhold them for any reason or, actually, no reason at all. The CHP has a policy of not releasing its reports to the public, though the law does not rule out release.

Detective Dan Robison, now retired, took the case on after Opseth’s retirement. He said he got the clear impression from his superiors that the sheriff at the time, Steve Bernal, did not want a full investigation. Eddington and several associates were among the first contributors to Bernal’s initial campaign for sheriff. Robison alleged that the Sheriff’s Office handling of the case amounted to a cover-up. Robison was given another more pressing case to investigate shortly after being assigned to the Zavala matter.

Because authorities are keeping the investigative records sealed, Voices cannot determine when either Opseth or Robison began or ended their work on the case.

Sheriff Nieto reopened her department’s investigation earlier this year after Voices reported on the case, but that undertaking has gone through a couple of stops and starts. Nieto said she believes the CHP should have been the primary agency on the investigation and perhaps still should be.

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