A former Long Beach teacher who’s out on bond and facing charges for a deadly hit-and-run crash failed to appear in court earlier this week, prompting a judge to issue a bench warrant for her arrest, court records show.
Deborah Betance, 56, has been free on $50,000 bail since July 13, just hours after police took her into custody in connection to a hit-and-run crash that killed 78-year-old Jere Whitney.
Now, Judge Debra Cole has ordered Betance to be re-arrested and held in lieu of $100,000 bail after she failed to show up to her preliminary hearing without sufficient excuse, court records show. Court records show Betance had not missed any of her previous court dates.
Betance was arrested in July on suspicion of vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence after a lengthy investigation led police to believe that she was behind the wheel of the orange SUV that fled that scene after striking Whitney at a crosswalk in Belmont Shore on the night of July 6, 2021.
Following her arrest, Betance was charged with one felony count each of vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence and hit-and-run resulting in death or serious injury. She pleaded not guilty to the charges in November.
Betance was a teacher at Longfellow Elementary School at the time of the crash, but the district later suspended her without pay, although a Long Beach Unified School District spokesperson could not comment on the reason for the suspension, citing employee confidentiality laws. As of January, Betance retired from the district, according to school officials.
Editor’s note: This story has been updated to correct Deborah Betance’s age and employment status.
Long Beach teacher pleads not guilty to charges she killed 78-year-old in hit-and-run crash