Ex-Nebraska officer pleads to lesser crash charge

FALLS CITY, Neb. (AP) -- A former police officer in southeast Nebraska faces sentencing March 5 after making a plea deal in a crash death case.

The Lincoln Journal Star reports (http://bit.ly/Pu0WWf) that 36-year-old Steven Darveau Jr., of Falls City, pleaded no contest to misdemeanor vehicular homicide after prosecutors lowered the felony manslaughter charge.

Prosecutors say that on Aug. 5, 2011, Darveau made a left turn in front of a motorcycle at the intersection of U.S. Highway 73 and South 703 Loop, three miles south of Falls City.

The motorcyclist died at the scene. He was identified as 64-year-old Edward Packard, of Cleves, Ohio.

Darveau had worked as a police officer for the Sac and Fox Nation in northern Kansas and as a Falls City police officer before that.

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Information from: Lincoln Journal Star, http://www.journalstar.com