Posted on 08/07/2008 4:08:08 AM PDT by ButThreeLeftsDo
In the end, a Kandiyohi County jury believed that Olga Franco was behind the wheel of a van when it plowed into a loaded Cottonwood school bus nearly six months ago, killing four students and injuring 17.
The 24-year-old Guatemalan native, who had claimed that her boyfriend was driving the van, showed no emotion when the verdict was read -- guilty on all 24 counts, including criminal vehicular homicide and criminal vehicular injury. Family members of the victims wept quietly as the verdict was read about 10 p.m.
Over more than four days of testimony from crash experts and other witnesses, the jurors had been faced with one central question: Had Franco been driving the van that plowed into the bus on Feb. 19?
Even if they had determined that Franco wasn't behind the wheel and had acquitted her, she hadn't been expected to walk out of the courthouse. She still faces federal identity theft charges and was likely to be deported because authorities say she is in the country illegally.
(Excerpt) Read more at startribune.com ...
Ping...
The real guilty party is the US Government - INS and ICE.
Government officials should be going to jail for their abject dereliction of duty that has led to many more deaths than just the children in in this one incident.
Nope. Just some Senator's son or daughter...
L
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All the people cited in the article are light years ahead of me in terms of charitability. I have much to learn from my fellow Minnesotans.
Let’s see what the sentence is. It better be damned stiff, or it’s a joke.
Personally, I’d make it 4 consecutive life sentences, then deport her rotting carcass back to Guatemala.
Some of that comes from the fact that folks realize that whatever they say will be repeated. I’ll assume that you’ve never worked for any sort of media. When you go to interview someone, when you ask questions and jot down notes, when you hold a tape recorder while you interview, when you hold a microphone to their face.......they tend NOT to say exactly what they are thinking. Words came come back to bite you. These folks didn’t want to come off sounding hateful in front of the world.
You’d be shocked to learn what some folks will say when they think that the tape isn’t rolling......
Think....Jesse Jackson
Hey...You’ve been a member here one day longer than me....
I’ll be certain to follow this through the sentencing.
Stay tuned.
justice ping
Course they would believe this in a Mexican court.
I’ve never made a secret of my thoughts on illegal immigration. I won’t belabor the point. That, combined with the fact that she mowed down four people, children who could’ve grown up to be ordinary productive persons or extraordinary ones, would keep me from being so benevolent as to remark, as the grandfather of the 2 little boys did, about another young life being trucated. I wouldn’t say, “Throw her ___ in jail. I want to see her given the lehal injection next week, ..........” But I also wouldn’t say the things that these people said.
And you’re right. I’ve never worked in media. I just can’t imagine being in that vortex of grief and remembering to be restrained.
They’ve had six months to think about what they were going to say today.
In the mean time, they have been able to cry, scream, swear and just plain hate-out-loud. Privately.
In the aftermath, there just may be some folks that we’ve never heard from before. If they spout ANYTHING resembling hate or rascism, fully expect the local (and, probably the national) media to make it front page news. Count on it.
You’re right, of course.
I understand what you say about the local and national media making it front-page news if these people were to permit themselves to say anything shy of benevolent/forgiving. This blessed media will make anything about racism. There’s a part of me that wants them to, so that someday, the word will become meaningless.
Well, it’s not that I’m right and you are wrong. I just have seen, first hand, how this game works.....
That all being said......there is still the fear (rumor) that this judge is an activist and may minimize the sentence.
If that were to occur, THEN you will see Minnesota Ugly.
Bet on it.
I agree. And thank goodness the families received some type of justice.
I agree.
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