By Sophia Voravong

A West Lafayette man admitted taking a combination of prescription psychoactive drugs and opioids the day he caused a three-vehicle crash in February that killed another man.

Terry L. Verhoeven, 57, told Judge Thomas Busch of Tippecanoe Superior Court 2 that he was once diagnosed with bipolar disorder. He also said he had impending surgeries for knee and hip replacement.

Verhoeven could spend up to 20 years in prison after pleading guilty Tuesday afternoon to Class B felony operating a vehicle while intoxicated, causing death.

The crash on U.S. 52 West, east of the Soldiers Home Road overpass, killed Charles Meyer, 58, of West Lafayette and injured a woman.

Meyer was an employee of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

He worked in a soil erosion laboratory as an associate information technology specialist in Purdue University's department of agriculture and biological engineering.

His wife, Ginny Meyer, attended the guilty plea hearing but told Busch that she was going to wait for Verhoeven's sentence to address the court.

Verhoeven was driving a Chevrolet Malibu that rear-ended Meyer's Toyota pickup truck on Feb. 4 in the eastbound lanes of U.S. 52 West.

The impact pushed the pickup across the grass median of the four-lane highway and into the path of an oncoming Lexus sport utility vehicle.

Verhoeven's attorney, Michael Trueblood, asked Verhoeven whether he understood that driving after taking prescription benzodiazepines and opioids meant he was impaired.

"I do now," Verhoeven replied.

He also admitted to having a trace amount of marijuana in his blood stream the day he was arrested.

Verhoeven has a prior OWI conviction from Dec. 4, 2002, which elevated his crime from a Class C felony to a Class B felony.

As part of his plea agreement, Verhoeven also pleaded to a separate incident on Oct. 30, 2005, in which he pointed an unloaded gun at someone on his rural West Lafayette property.

That person, Chris Cudworth, is a Lafayette police officer.

Verhoeven could be sentenced to up to a year in prison on the Class A misdemeanor.