PLEA BARGAIN REJECTED IN BABY'S TRAFFIC DEATH.

Byline: Laurence Darmiento Daily News Staff Writer

The trial of a Canyon Country mother blamed for the traffic death of her infant son began Tuesday after the woman rejected a plea bargain her lawyer feared could have sent her to prison.

Lesia Smith Pappas refused to plead to a felony in the August death of her 3-month-old son on Bouquet Canyon Road, triggering jury selection for her trial in North Valley Superior Court.

``I don't think any jury will convict me. It wasn't my fault,'' said Pappas, 33. ``I am not going to prison and be away from my children.''

Pappas is charged with vehicular manslaughter, felony child endangerment, reckless driving and driving without a license in the accident, which also injured her two older children and another driver.

On her way to drop off her children at school, Pappas lost control of the family's van while rounding a notorious curve and it slammed into an oncoming car, sending the van airborne and into a field.

Her infant son, Alexander, died after being partially ejected from the van while still in his child safety seat, while her then-7-year-old son Nicholas was seriously injured after hitting the windshield.

Her daughter Christina, then 9, was less severely injured. The driver of the other car, a 40-year-old Palmdale man, was critically injured.

According to CHP investigators, the infant son's child safety seat was not tied down, but only placed in the rear of the van, while the two older children were not buckled in.

Pappas also was blamed for causing the accident by speeding around the bend at more than 60 mph. Moreover, she was cited twice previously for failing to properly restrain her children.

However, Pappas has long claimed that she was not speeding, and that all the children had been properly restrained - but that the two older ones had just taken their belts off to readjust them.

The pair were sharing one belt in the right front passenger seat, since the van, the family's second car, did not have rear seats, she said.

In addition, Pappas has said the child safety seat was restrained the only way it could have been in the van - with her own lap belt, which she pulled behind her seat to secure the infant on the floor of the van directly behind her.

Pappas also has claimed that the two prior citations were given after her children unbuckled themselves.

On Tuesday, the defense offered support for her position, submitting a report by an accident reconstruction expert that concluded that the woman was not speeding around the bend.

It also said gravel that had migrated onto the road from the shoulder was the primary cause of the van going out of control.

Moreover, the defense says a psychologist who interviewed the older children has concluded that they are telling the truth when they said they had been buckled in and that the child safety seat was tied down.

``She gave her seat belt to use for the child. She flew through the windshield of her own car and was lucky she wasn't killed,'' said attorney Dale Galipo. ``It's a seat belt she ordinarily would have used. She does not deserve to go to prison.''

Deputy District Attorney Bob Foltz said, however, that he had just seen the accident reconstruction report and questioned its validity.

``This guy may be engaging in a fantasy,'' Foltz said. ``In his report he says her van was going just 33 mph, but somehow it managed to climb up in the air, spiral and clear 15-foot-high oleander bushes. A car doing 33 mph couldn't do that in a million years.

``She is completely responsible for the accident. She went through the curves too fast. Her kids were not appropriately secured in that vehicle. Due to her neglect, one child died and one was injured pretty bad.''

Foltz has said that he would not reduce the charges to a misdemeanor in any plea bargain.

Pappas decided to go ahead with the trial after deciding over lunch not to accept a plea bargain that Galipo said would have required her to plead to a felony charge of child endangerment.

While the plea would not necessarily have sent her to prison, Galipo said it appeared unlikely that she would have gotten a probationary sentence. The charges carry more than seven years in prison.

Standing by her version of events, Pappas said she has filed a wrongful death claim against the county, accusing it of failing to properly maintain the road by allowing gravel to build up on the curve.

She said she also has filed a claim against the county for taking her children into protective custody after the accident. Pappas said she was just reunited with her three children, including a 6-year-old son, earlier this month.

The speed limit around the curve where the accident took place was lowered earlier this year by 5 mph to 55 mph after nearby residents complained it was too dangerous, noting that it has been the site of numerous accidents.