A judge has set a trial date in late October for the Central Oregon woman charged with driving under the influence of intoxicants in a crash in March 2024 that injured several Baker High School students.

Judge Walter Miller in Deschutes County Circuit Court on Wednesday morning, April 9, set a trial date of Oct. 28 for Katrina Nicole Dacus, 35, of Culver.

An attorney from the Deschutes County attorney’s office told the judge that she anticipates an eight-day trial based on the state calling around 15 Baker students as witnesses.

The judge denied a request from Dacus’ attorney, Ethan Meaney, for what would have been the sixth continuance in the case.

Meaney, the third attorney to represent Dacus, told the judge he became her lawyer this winter. The case, with Dacus facing 29 counts, including two felony counts of third-degree assault, involves “a lot of discovery and medical reports,” Meaney said.

The attorney from the district attorney’s office objected to Meaney’s request for a continuance and asked the judge to set a trial date.

The judge told Meaney that with more than six months before the trial is scheduled, there should be ample time to gather the information he needs to prepare a defense.

The judge also chastised Dacus, who participated in the hearing by video, for doing so while sitting in the driver’s seat of her car, which was parked outside her home.

“It’s so obvious,” Miller told Dacus.

Dacus apologized, telling the judge she has three young children and that it was noisy inside her home.

Miller said it was an “odd place” to participate in a hearing for a defendant accused of crimes while driving.

A different defendant, also participating by video, had earlier used a profanity while talking to the judge.

After setting the trial date for Dacus, the judge told the audience that two things they had learned were not to cuss at the judge, and “don’t show up in your car for a case involving driving charges.”