Santa Barbara Driver in Fatal Cliff Drive Hit-and-Run Faces Felony Charges, Civil Suit

Brock Alexander Hoffman, the 56-year-old Santa Barbara man alleged to have been behind the wheel in a fatal hit-and-run on Cliff Drive on June 29, appeared in court Wednesday morning and pleaded not guilty to one felony count of “leaving the scene of an accident that resulted in death.”

Santa Barbara District Attorney John Savrnoch announced that his office had officially filed the felony charges following an investigation into the fatal incident on Cliff Drive which killed one man, 39-year-old Juan Lopez, a Vons store manager who had just gotten out of his parked car on the same street. 

Investigators say Hoffman fled the scene without reporting the crash to the authorities. His identity was unknown to the public for days following the incident, until detectives traced the Toyota Land Cruiser and identified Hoffman as the suspected driver. On July 4, he turned himself in and was arrested and booked on suspicion of hit-and-run and concealing evidence.

Hoffman was released shortly afterward on a bail of $50,000 — something that was questioned by Lopez’s family and friends following the incident. During a community vigil hosted near the scene of the crash on July 9, Christina Godinez, the mother of Lopez’s three children, called the bail amount a “slap on the wrist” and an injustice.

Since then, Lopez’s family filed a civil suit against Hoffman, which claims that Hoffman and a passenger were both in the vehicle at the time of the incident, and that both got out of the vehicle and “went and looked at Juan Lopez lying in the street” before the pair “returned to Mr. Hoffman’s vehicle and drove off.”

“They did not remain at the scene of an accident and did not report the accident to law enforcement,” reads the complaint, which was filed by the family’s attorney Brian Osborne. “Rather, Mr. Hoffman engaged in attempting to hide his involvement in this accident.”

The family is seeking damages for negligence and wrongful death, which caused Lopez’s family “severe emotional and physiological injuries,” according to the lawsuit.

After entering a plea of not guilty to the felony charge, Hoffman is scheduled to appear again for the criminal case on October 21. The civil case is still open, and is scheduled for a case management conference with Judge Colleen Sterne on December 2.