The Oxnard police officer who drove over a sunbather and killed her last summer will not be prosecuted, Ventura County District Attorney Gregory Totten announced Wednesday.

Cindy Conolly, 49, of Sioux City, Iowa, died June 12, 2006 when an Oxnard Police Department sport utility vehicle driven by Officer Frank Brisslinger hit her as she lay in the sun on Mandalay Beach, outside the Embassy Suites Resort where her family was staying for her son's wedding.

Brisslinger was patrolling the Oxnard beach with Officer Martin Polo.

In a 54-page report, the DA's Office explained that the evidence was not sufficient to prosecute Brisslinger: "Officer Brisslinger was not provided with the training and equipment necessary to safely patrol the beach in a vehicle. Based on the known evidence, it cannot be proven beyond a reasonable doubt that Officer Brisslinger drove the SUV on the beach in an unlawful manner."

Oxnard Police Chief John Crombach said he was pleased Brisslinger won't be prosecuted.

"I saw this as an organizational failure," he said.

Brisslinger is back to work, he said, and Crombach spoke with him Tuesday, anticipating the district attorney's report.

"He wasn't doing well yesterday," Crombach said. "He's going to carry this burden the rest of his life."

The report lays out the evidence the DA's Office collected from various sources, including that the SUV was moving at 4 to 15 mph, the unit radio and stereo were on in the SUV, the windows were open, the officers were "laughing and having a good time"; Polo had his foot up on the dashboard; neither officer was wearing his seat belt; Conolly was lying in a blind spot as the officers approached; and emergency responders also had trouble seeing Conolly when they approached.

While the evidence available might be enough to prove civil negligence (by a preponderance of evidence), it may not be sufficient to meet the burden of proof in criminal cases, which is steeper (beyond a reasonable doubt), said Carol Chase, a criminal law professor at Pepperdine University.

"The mere breach of duty of ordinary care wouldn't be enough to sustain a criminal action," she said. "I would have been surprised if they had been charged criminally."

Police officers are rarely prosecuted in these types of cases, said Duke Law School Professor Erwin Chemerinsky.

"I think some of it is that district attorneys' offices rely on police for all of their cases and are reluctant to prosecute police," he said. "I think some of it is that there's a shared identity with law enforcement officials. And in some cases it's hard to get convictions. So I think all of that combines to a general reluctance on the part of prosecutors nationwide to prosecute police officers."

The district attorney did not treat this case differently from any other, said the report's author, Senior Deputy District Attorney Kevin Drescher.

"If charges could have been brought against Officer Brisslinger based on the facts," Drescher said, "we would have filed against him, whether he was a police officer or not."

Drescher said he hopes people read the report before commenting about it.

Negligence allegations are still pending in the civil action Conolly's family filed against the city of Oxnard. The city has already admitted fault, however, so all that needs to be proven are damages.

City Attorney Gary Gillig is hopeful that the district attorney's decision not to prosecute will move the civil case forward, possibly toward settlement. "My expectation is that meaningful discussions will take place in the near future," he said.

"We will hold Oxnard and its insurance carrier accountable for the death of Cindy Conolly," said Mark Hiepler, the lawyer representing Conolly's children, Ronnie Bassett and Tammy Krieger, both of Prior Lake, Minn. The family put out the following statement Wednesday in response to the DA's report:

"We waited 226 days to find out that moments before our mother's death at age 49, the Oxnard Police Officers responsible were ‘laughing and having a good time,' reclining in their SUV with the FM radio on, feet on the dashboard, driving too fast on the beach, without a purpose, without training, and without a policy. This irresponsible conduct has left us without a mother. We hope her death and this case will ultimately make the beaches safer and save lives."

The city is insured, so taxpayers won't be footing the bill for anything exceeding $1 million.

Any money the city ends up paying out for the case will be divided between tax dollars (the first $1 million) and the insurance policy (the remainder, up to $24 million).

Oxnard pays $400,000 a year to be a member of the Big Independent Cities Excess Liability Pool, also known as BICEP.

Crombach said his department has made changes since Conolly's death. The parks department trained 10 officers, a new policy was developed and implemented, and a small specialty vehicle made by Polaris was purchased in the last week for beach patrol. More training is also in the works for other officers.

As for Conolly's family, Crombach said, "You can't say you're sorry enough. We took everything the DA had to say, and those changes have been made and implemented, and we'll pray that this will never ever happen again."