News

Family thankful to survive crash caused by driver with four DWI’s

Accused drunk driver Justin Cody Moore crashed his heavy pickup into Andrew Ogden’s Honda Pilot on Kanuga Road at Price Road. [CONTRIBUTED]

By Bill Moss, Published: December 18, 2024

Avery Ogden and her family are thankful to be healthy and alive after an accused drunk driver slammed into their SUV on Kanuga Road at Price Road on Dec. 6.

Visiting their parents’ home for a late family Thanksgiving, Avery and her twin brother, his wife and little boy were turning left with a green light from Price onto Kanuga when a 1999 Ford 250 pickup truck ran a solid red light and T-boned their car.

Ogden and her brother, sister-in-law and their child were released from the hospital without major injuries after an ambulance took all four to the ER.

“We’re all very traumatized,” Ogden, 34, said in an interview last week when she was back home in Colorado. Her brother, Andrew, and his family were visiting from the Nashville, Tenn., area. Avery credited her brother’s vehicle, a sturdy Honda Pilot, with making the outcome better than it might have been.

“The car saved our lives I think,” she said. “All the airbags went off on both sides. We were pretty lucky. When it happened we were all so shocked.” Her sister-in-law immediately picked up the 2-year-old and held him. “I have bruises up and down my leg. None of us had life-threatening injuries or anything but we’re all starting to feel neck and back pain.”

The driver, 33-year-old Justin Cody Moore, has racked up an astounding series of arrests on drunk driving charges, court records show. He’s been charged with DWI four times in Polk and Henderson counties since last December, and has registered a blood alcohol content of more than twice the legal limit of .08 in at least three of the four arrests. (One of the case files available via the state’s eCourts portal did not show an alcohol level.)

In arrest records, Moore has reported home addresses in Landrum, S.C., Upward Road in Hendersonville and, most recently, at the home of a girlfriend in Brevard. A search of North Carolina court records showed that Moore has been charged with DWI and other offenses on six occasions:

• July 25, 2023, city of Hendersonville: Police issued a ticket to Moore on Clairmont Drive for no tag and no insurance while he was driving a 1998 Nissan pickup. Voluntarily dismissed in Henderson County District Court in October 2023.
• 2, 2023, Henderson County: Charged with assault on female against Cassandra Doris Pearson at a home they shared at 2793 Upward Road. Dismissed at complainant’s request on Sept. 27, 2023.
• 10, 2023, Polk County: Charged with driving while impaired, communicating a threat against Polk County Sheriff’s Deputy M. Mann. Breath test result .21. Continued on Dec. 11, 2024, to Jan. 8, 2025.
• 24, 2024, Henderson County: Charged with driving while impaired at 2:47 p.m. after a vehicle crash on U.S. 64 near Old Homestead Road in Horse Shoe, also charged with failing to maintain lane control (at 60 mph) and no seatbelt. Court date Jan. 10, 2025.
• 3, 2024, Polk County: Charged with driving while impaired, failure to reduce speed, reckless driving on N.C. 108 in Columbus. Breath test result .18. Records show Moore’s license was revoked at that time. Ordered to appear in court February 2025 after posting a $1,000 bond.
• 6, 2024, Henderson County: After crash on Kanuga Road at Price Road at 3:55 p.m., Moore was charged with driving while impaired, driving while license revoked, using a foreign license while driving while license revoked, failing to stop at a steady red light. Breath test result .17. Court date Jan. 13, 2025.

Judge slashes request for $200,000 bond

District Attorney Andrew Murray said the Moore case came to his attention early last week, just days after the DWI crash. The bond set by a magistrate was too low, he said, considering Moore’s three other pending drunk driving cases.

“My assistant came to see me and we immediately noticed it for a bond hearing two days later,” Murray said. “We went to bat. We argued for a $200,000 cash bond (based on the fact) that he was a threat to the community’s safety. And the judge gave us the cash bond but only did a $50,000 cash bond rather than $200,000 we asked for and apparently he posted immediately.” The judge also granted prosecutors’ request to order Moore to wear a continuous alcohol monitor bracelet.

Ellen Pitt, who leads the Western North Carolina DWI Task Force, said she was relieved to hear that Moore was forced to wear a CAM bracelet. The task force, which advocates for tougher DWI laws, led a pilot program in seven mountain counties west of here to require use of CAM bracelets by DWI defendants awaiting trial.

“We did that project over here and it was 99 percent successful,” she said. “If he drinks, an alarm goes off and the provider and the district attorney were notified so there was an immediate revocation of the bond. They can sit in jail until they’re tried and that’s the way you protect the public.”

She also said that, since the Lightning had informed her of Moore’s cases, she intends to follow up and attend his upcoming hearings in Polk and Henderson counties.

“That annoys me that with four pending DWI’s, the D.A. asked for $200,000 and (the judge) wouldn’t grant that,” she said.

Meanwhile, out west, Ogden continues to be perplex that Moore remains free despite his record.

“He needs to be put away in my opinion,” she said. “He’s had four (DWI’s) in one year. I live in Colorado and it’s extremely strict. You’re in jail after the second offense. What will it take to get him off the street — kill someone? He’s gonna kill someone. It’s just a matter of time.”