Forum Discussion
jwmII wrote:
More Baloney. It was pled down because the prosecutor did not have adequate evidence to take a higher charge to trial. " One doesn't have to be present to to know what took place based on my 30 years as a cop". There's that police mentality again. Everybody is guilty of the worst.
Just curious about your experience inside a criminal court. We know he has 30 years experience, I have 13+ years experience. In probably close to 100% of my cases, the prosecutor will offer some type of plea deal to a defendant to avoid a trial. Trials can be long, they can be expensive. Sending a trial out to a jury is always "iffy".
The prosecutor worked out a plea deal for reckless homicide, a class D felony in Tennessee. A class D felony is punishable by a maximum of 2-12 years of jail time. This wasn't some chicken scratch charge to which the drive pled guilty... this was a serious charge with a lengthy jail term.
We don't know any caps on sentencing that were agreed to by the prosecutor and defense, but ultimately the judge is the one who decides the level of punishment. The judge could have sentenced this guy to 12 years in jail, which I think most of us agree would have been excessive.
Any "police mentality" on display here is simply knowledge of how the system works. No need to be insulting towards him about what he wrote. I'd guess he has more experience than me and you combined in a court room.
But please... do tell about all your courtroom experience and why you feel you have the right to disparage him for speaking about HIS experiences...- Lots of knee jerk reactions. First off, it doesn't matter whether it was an officer or a bum on the street, it was a human being. Second, being a good driver is not a requirement by law. If you pass the test you receive a license to drive.
We don't know all the details and I guess the next thing is to hang the judge for his decision. I'm sure the driver has received a greater punishment, that which he will carry with him the rest of his life. jspringator wrote:
I was driving south on I-65 around the WK Parkway exchange. I was going posted limit or slightly above in my car. A car passed me IN THE EMERGENCY LANE. It scared the bejeebers out of me. That is a wild stretch of road.
In my experience, it is very rare to see a non impaired driver charged with a crime, unless they were texting, on the phone or going way over the speed limit. A jury would have a hard time convicting someone of a felony without more than simple negligence.
The accident happened in Nashville, not Kentucky. Yes there is a lot of traffic there, too.- I was driving south on I-65 around the WK Parkway exchange. I was going posted limit or slightly above in my car. A car passed me IN THE EMERGENCY LANE. It scared the bejeebers out of me. That is a wild stretch of road.
In my experience, it is very rare to see a non impaired driver charged with a crime, unless they were texting, on the phone or going way over the speed limit. A jury would have a hard time convicting someone of a felony without more than simple negligence. - Has anyone else ever noticed that in driving south from Louisville on I-65, Average traffic speed is just a bit over the limit. However, approaching Nashville, just as traffic starts to pick up, the driving speed increases at least 10 MPH, and sometimes a lot more. As you get a bit further in, and traffic increases even more, speeds run 10-15 MPH above the speed limits. Then, about the time you get to the I-24 intersection, speed drops almost to a stop. And there has been construction in that area for at least 40 years. And, there is a very narrow railroad overpass, where the lanes are very narrow, and no space on either side. It's a rule there that when the traffic gets worse, go faster to get out of it quicker! And most of us got our drivers license by mail from Sears-Roebuck.
azdryheat wrote:
EV2 wrote:
There was no jury of peers, this case never went to trial. He was offered a plea deal in lieu of a court trial and he took it. What he plead guilty to is Reckless Homicide.
Wow, not sure why we even have court when you can make all of these decisive conclusions from a story filed by a news reporter. I have yet to see an accurate and complete news story on any occasion where I have personal knowledge of the event and often the story is totally wrong. But, apparently everyone else knows what happened. So much for a jury of peers.
Here is Tenn's definition: Reckless homicide or recklessly killing a person (other than with a vehicle) is also a crime. It's a Class D felony.
Notice that it says "other than with a vehicle"? It appears the higher charge of Vehicular Homicide was dropped so that the murderer would plead to a lesser charge and the county wouldn't have to spend money on an expensive trial. One doesn't have to be present to know what took place based on my 30 years as a cop. Seen too many plea deals go down.
More Baloney. It was pled down because the prosecutor did not have adequate evidence to take a higher charge to trial. " One doesn't have to be present to to know what took place based on my 30 years as a cop". There's that police mentality again. Everybody is guilty of the worst.- I sometimes don't agree with penalties that are given out, but I have learned in 13 years of law enforcement that there are always mitigating factors. We don't know the full details, we don't know the result of the investigation.
The prosecutor that worked out the plea knows the details. The judge that accepted the plea and doled out punishment knows the details. I agree that probation is a VERY lenient sentence in my mind, but I don't know the details.
A lengthy jail sentence wouldn't bring this young officer back to his family. An older driver with an otherwise clean driving and criminal record (I'm making an assumption here) probably feels incredible guilt for his decision and has to deal with his decision and mistake for the rest of his life.
Stupidity and negligence intersect at a fine line. I have to wonder what the driver was doing at the time the crash occurred. Was he fiddling around with his GPS?
I remember a couple of older drivers on here giving me grief a couple months back on a thread about a distracted driver because they would prefer to fiddle with the GPS than simply listen to it or let their co-pilot fiddle with it.
Was he eating food and not giving his full time and attention to the road? Is it possible he simply just failed to appreciate how much slower traffic was moving and simply didn't slow in time?
We don't know. I feel the sentence is light, but I don't know the details. It is a terrible tragedy and I feel bad for the driver and the family of my fallen brother officer. Sometimes a simple mistake claims a life. Hopefully none of the members here are ever in a situation like this.
Drive safe, make smart decisions and arrive alive at your destination. He killed a man the same as if he had shot him.
Well, no, intent matters in the criminal justice system. A lot. Presumably, the judge was aware of the details of the crash, the drivers' prior driving history and any criminal record the driver might have had (I'd guess none by the sentence). Was the sentence too lenient? Maybe, but hard to say without all the information.
Civil liability seems much clearer, FWIW.- From what all the witnesses said, he was going at least 10 mph faster than the other traffic, which was slowing to merge over into the open lanes.
Now ANY TIME you are going faster than surrounding traffic, even in a car, it's pretty stupid. In a motorhome, it's criminal, because you KNOW you need more time/distance to stop and maneuver than smaller vehicles.
He tried to drive between the stopped vehicles because HE could not get stopped in time. He didn't slow down to merge in with other traffic, because there he's one of those people who wants to merge in at the last second. He couldn't merge in at the speed he was going, and he couldn't stop. So he ran over the policeman.
I know that area well and there is no way he could not have seen some distance in front of him. No blind curve, no way to miss that lanes are closed. EV2 wrote:
There was no jury of peers, this case never went to trial. He was offered a plea deal in lieu of a court trial and he took it. What he plead guilty to is Reckless Homicide.
Wow, not sure why we even have court when you can make all of these decisive conclusions from a story filed by a news reporter. I have yet to see an accurate and complete news story on any occasion where I have personal knowledge of the event and often the story is totally wrong. But, apparently everyone else knows what happened. So much for a jury of peers.
Here is Tenn's definition: Reckless homicide or recklessly killing a person (other than with a vehicle) is also a crime. It's a Class D felony.
Notice that it says "other than with a vehicle"? It appears the higher charge of Vehicular Homicide was dropped so that the murderer would plead to a lesser charge and the county wouldn't have to spend money on an expensive trial. One doesn't have to be present to know what took place based on my 30 years as a cop. Seen too many plea deals go down.
