Friday, October 30, 2009

Road Rage Trial Closing Arguments

VeloNews has the latest.

The defense tried to portray the collision as an accident. The prosecution tried to remind jurors that a car can be a deadly weapon by acting out the incident with a baseball bat instead of a car:


First, she goes to a Trader Joe’s. Goes to the aisle where they have granola she wants. Someone is in the way, preventing her from getting her granola, so she swings a bat at the person, but doesn't hit him. With that, Stone held up a baseball bat, swinging in an abrupt arc.

Weeks go by. She returns to the Trader Joe’s and again there’s someone in the way, someone preventing her from getting her granola. This time she swings the bat at them and they duck just out of the way.

A few more weeks go by and she’s back at Trader Joe’s. Someone, she said, “is in my aisle, blocking me from my granola. So I blast his nose with my bat.”

“But of course, I get arrested.”

Then, donning a white doctor’s coat, she said, “But I shroud myself in this because I want to deflect what I did.”

So that's the heart of it. If a driver gets annoyed at a perceived delay caused by a cyclist, then uses the car as a weapon to get revenge, that's a crime. I think the Doc could have got away with it if he had simply said he got mad and slammed on the brakes, but didn't think it would cause an injury. That's probably more or less what happened. Instead, he made up what sounds like pure fiction to avoid all culpability and to paint himself as a saint. I'm hoping the jury sees through that.

The verdict should come back next week.

2 comments:

Jim said...

I have been following this also. Simply amazing. I hope the jury sees through the smoke screen but you never know.
I like the fact that the speed limit on that road is 30 mph and the riders were doing 30 but the good doctor passed them.
Question. Why was he not cited for speeding and maybe going left of center too?

Kevin Kimmich said...

Based on what I've read, I am thinking the jury will see through it. The doc's explanation of the events doesn't make any sense at all.

But, of course, almost everything I've read has been in cycling blogs and the VeloNews, so it's probably slanted.

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