Posted on 07/31/2008 9:53:55 PM PDT by ButThreeLeftsDo
The first emergency workers to arrive at the fatal Cottonwood school bus crash scene in February described for a jury Thursday how they found Olga Franco pinned in the driver's seat of the van that hit the bus.
Franco's right leg was stuck under the van's crumpled dashboard, her foot wedged between the gas pedal and the dashboard's center console, witnesses said in Kandiyohi County District Court.
In the trial's first day of testimony, Lyon County Attorney Rick Maes hammered at that key point -- that Franco was the driver of the van -- one that Franco's defense attorneys are trying to dispute.
Franco, a 24-year-old Guatemalan, is accused of driving the van into the bus, killing four children and injuring 17 others, including the driver of a third vehicle that became entangled in the crash. She faces charges of criminal vehicular homicide, criminal vehicular injury, driving without a license, running a stop sign and giving authorities a false name and birth date.
Her attorneys have maintained that her boyfriend, who was also in the country illegally, was driving the van and that he fled before authorities arrived.
(Excerpt) Read more at startribune.com ...
Illegals - Just killing the children Americans are too lazy to kill.
i’ll bet her attorney is being paid by the state
Yep.
And the politicians and corporations live behind gates and armed guards...
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What’s the boy friend’s name? Is he illegal? Where is he?
why the he$% has’nt anybody yet sued the Feds for the consequences of failing to control the border? If there’s one thing the Feds are SUPOSED to be doing, it would be border control!!!
1. Can’t remember his name. It has been revealed.
2. Yes, he’s illegal and facing charges, if found.
3. I’m gonna guess Chicago.
Do you guys really think that she meant to hit the bus on purpose? This could have happened to anyone. Unless you have numbers that say illegals cause fatal accidents at a higher rate than citizens and legal immigrants, then that angle is really quite irrelevant. I’m in favor of securing the border, but I’m sad for the kids and I’m not angry at anyone, and I’m certainly not going to use this as a cheap political ploy. I personally find that pretty repugnant.
What kind of lawyer would support her decision to obvious lie?
Their status is a legitimate concern. She says the boyfriend was driving and left the scene of the horrific accident. Is it easier to find a criminal who is a citizen or an illegal immigrant? They come here, cause havoc, then skip since they have nothing to lose by doing so.
We certainly see a constant stream of stories like this here; but due to the obvious news-selection process, it’s hard to know whether illegals are really more of a threat than legal residents.
Real data would help. But is there any available? And would reports claiming real data be free of “lying with statistics?”
If the bar was more than a trade support group they’d yank this guy’s license. With damning evidence like this allowing her to continue this charade is pure malpractice.
but due to the obvious news-selection process, it’s hard to know whether illegals are really more of a threat than legal residents.
I think you're also right that it would be hard to trust statistics one way or the other on this, especially depending on the source.
I myself favor securing the border for national security reasons, but I honestly don't blame the illegals at all. We have laws that make it extremely difficult for them to get here legally, but we have jobs and they know we're leaving the border wide open. The problem is, we need the labor, but no politician wants to face the “populist” backlash for admitting that, so they keep the strict laws and get around it by leaving the border open, which is now more dangerous than ever.
Most come here to work - at worst, they come here to mooch off welfare, not to cause accidents. I think our immigration system is very flawed, and I really can’t blame most illegals for coming here illegally - see the last paragraph of my post #16.
I really do understand your point of view and even share it. I think we should work towards a world where borders don’t hinder peoples’ movements. That’s a world I WANT to live in.
But we have some work to do before we can do it. The fact is our socialist systems are not designed to accommodate the hoards of people waiting on the borders to exploit it. It would be an unmitigated disaster if we opened the boarders now. Here is another benefit to dismantling the welfare state.
We need the labor, but we have the labor. It's just been made prohibitively expensive by the drag of government taxation and regulation. Illegal laborers are not as efficient as the native product, but they have an advantage in that they come in under the government radar, meaning, you can buy them without being forced to buy the government as well.
As for the illegals-in-car-wrecks meme, the reason this gets harped on is the propensity of certain illegals to react to the situation the way they would in their country of origin, where it's not illegal to pick up heels and flee the scene of an accident, leaving the injured and dying to fend for themselves (and also avoiding government scrutiny.) The resentment should be understandable.
Sovereign immunity?
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