Suspect arrested in hit-and-run death of Cal's chief attorney
Chris Patti, chief lawyer for UC Berkeley was killed in a bicycle accident. Photo: UC Berkeley Public Affairs via Impact Fund/Alain McLaughlin
California Highway Patrol officers arrested a west Sonoma County man Tuesday on suspicion of the hit-and-run death of University of California at Berkeley's chief attorney near Guerneville on Sunday morning.
Jonathan Robert Murray Ritter, 28, a Rio Nido and Monte Rio area resident, was booked into Sonoma County Jail under $1 million bail on suspicion of felony vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence, hit-and-run causing death, and misdemeanor driving without a license, Sonoma County sheriff's Sgt. Spencer Crum said.
Ritter is scheduled to be arraigned in Sonoma County Superior Court Thursday afternoon. The CHP did not release details of Ritter's arrest.
Christopher Patti, 59, of Berkeley, UC Berkeley's chief campus counsel since 2010, was stopped with his bicycle on the right shoulder of River Road west of Summer Crossing and just west of Guerneville when he was struck by a BMW around 9:45 a.m. Sunday, according to the CHP.
The BMW driver continued driving west on River Road then turned around and drove east toward Guerneville. Russian River Fire Protection District crews responded to the crash and pronounced Patti dead at the scene.
Based on a license plate that was found at the scene, the CHP identified Ritter as a person of interest in the case.