Alleged hit and run driver is jailed
By Terry Murry on Monday, March 13th, 2023 in Columbia Basin News More Top Stories
HERMISTON – A hit and run crash seriously injured a woman and saw the alleged driver jailed early Saturday morning. Hermiston Police Chief Jason Edmiston said it began when officers responded to a report that a person was lying in the roadway at West Orchard and South First Street. The caller believed she had been hit by a vehicle.
The 43-year-old woman, a transient, was breathing but unconscious when police arrived. She was transported to Good Shepherd Medical Center and was later taken by air ambulance to Legacy Emmanuel in Portland, suffering from a skull fracture and other injuries. Edmiston said he did not know her current condition.
While officers were on the scene an employee of NAPA, which is nearby, told police he heard something and came out in time to see a white 2007 Honda Civic, with Oregon plate 615KMJ, pull into the lot and park.
“There was plastic left at the scene of the crash that matched a missing piece on the Honda,” according to the shift summary from the officer. “Anthony Lemus was contacted in the driver’s seat of the vehicle, passed out. Lemus was subsequently arrested for hit and run, DUII, and transported to the Hermiston Police Department.”
Lemus consented to field sobriety tests and provided a breath sample which showed a blood alcohol content of .25. A blood warrant was also submitted. Lemus was taken to Good Shepherd and then lodged at the Umatilla County Jail.
Anthony Solis Lemus, 25, has had his bail set at $245,000. Charges against him listed on the jail roster include one count of felony second-degree assault, one count of felony third-degree assault, one count of felony hit and run resulting in an injury, and misdemeanor charges of driving under the influence of intoxicants (alcohol) and reckless driving.
