TampaBay.Com: Leaving the scene brings unequal consequences
Consider two criminal cases, alike and not so much, at least when it comes to doling out the law in equal measure.
In 2004 it was a women, a Hillsborough teacher who hit four children crossing a dark street and drove away. Two were killed, and two were seriously hurt. For the crime of leaving the scene of an accident involving death, the teacher faced up to 15 years in prison.
Today, a 21-year-old Tampa another women faces the charge of leaving the scene of a crash involving death. Investigators say one night in March, she hit a man who had a blood alcohol level of 0.35 and drove away. Like the teacher before her, she would likely not have been charged had she only stayed.
But the other women faces twice the sentence the teach did — up to 30 years in prison. She would face half that had she been charged with DUI-manslaughter, and how does that make sense?
One more difference between the two cases, and it’s a biggie: The women went back to the scene of the crash.
In the infamous teacher case, it’s hard to forget the ugly details of her father washing the blood from her car and the teacher returning to work the next day.
The other women drove away, too. She made calls on her cell phone. And about an hour after the crash, she came back with her father and, investigators said, cooperated fully.
But by law, coming back later doesn’t matter. If someone is injured or dying or even dead, you stop, you help, you answer questions for police. Of course you do these things.
But shouldn’t the fact that the other women returned be taken into consideration? Shouldn’t coming back in a reasonable period of time — “reasonable” being one of those law words for judges and juries to puzzle over — mean a lesser but still serious charge?
Might it even encourage those who panic — like the teacher , like the other women— to finally do the right thing?
Now, about why the other women faces twice the time. In recent years, lawmakers bumped leaving the scene involving death from a second- to a first-degree felony punishable by up to 30 years — 15 more than DUI-manslaughter. Sometimes when lawmakers “fix” what they see as a weakness — or if you are cynical, when they beat their chests — quirks can happen.
So what about the other women? As a practical matter, like the teacher before her — and like Jordan Valdez, a Tampa high schooler who drove off after fatally hitting a homeless woman — she will not likely see jail. She was not drinking. She is not accused of causing the accident. She came back.
We elect our prosecutors and judges to handle the nuances of such complex cases, to take into account what she did and did not do, to consider that the mother of Billy Ivy, the man who died that night, said she wants the other women to understand what she did but does not want prison.
An issue may be whether the young women spends her life with a formal finding of guilt on her record, “adjudication,” as it’s called. Valdez, sentenced in the juvenile system, was not adjudicated guilty.
But here is another of those quirks: Because the crime is a first-degree felony, the other may not be able to avoid that record.
There is a lessen in these cases: You stop and you try to help, because it’s the right thing and also the law.
But that law should be the same for everyone, and that law should note for the record: Amanda Bentz came back.
If you have recently been accused of DUI in Tampa or elsewhere in Hillsborough County we may be able to help you avoid being convicted. Call us at 813-362-5623 to schedule your free consultation today.
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