that's the way i see it too...
Posted on 02/27/2012 7:35:38 PM PST by doug from upland
She probably thought she was doing the right thing. When 21-year-old Erin Brown was too wasted to drive her Toyota Scion home after a night out on the town, she gave the keys to her boyfriend, Trevor Bradshaw. Which would’ve been a responsible decision, except he was drunk too — and ended up hitting and killing two pedestrians as he swerved through the streets of Nashville. That’s tragic in and of itself.
But prosecutors are now dusting off a rarely used law to charge Brown with vehicular homicide right along with her man, citing that anyone who knowingly hands over their keys to an intoxicated person is just as liable for any damages as the individual behind the wheel. Now she’s facing 30 years in jail because she wasn’t astute enough in her drunkenness to realize that her boo was too tipsy to drive.
So what we’re basically saying here is that it was up to Brown to discern how far gone Bradshaw was rather than it being up to him to admit that he was too stewed to play chauffeur. Under that line of thinking, it must be a mugging victim’s fault for wearing a super snazzy handbag and tempting a renegade thief to steal it.
The sad fallout from their bad decision-making means two young men are now dead: Michael Brooksher, 22, and Tommy Allen, 23. The best friends both suffered injuries that killed them shortly after they were plowed down at 2:30 in the morning back in December. If the D.A.’s office has its way, this incident will also claim the lives of two more young people, with Brown and Bradshaw serving three decades behind bars, which puts them darn near in their golden years by the time they get out if they serve full sentences.
I’m not saying break out the violins and sad movie music for either of them, especially him. How many high school health classes and bad after school specials does someone have sit through before they get the message that driving drunk, bad; calling taxi, good? But I do think that, barring any idiotic new developments that confirm she was well aware of how inebriated her man actually was, prosecutors are trying — unnecessarily — to make an example out of her.
Defense lawyers dream. If she knew she was to drunk to drive, she was incapable of knowing her boyfriend was to drunk to drive.
That was a teenage accident ... nothing more ... no drinking, just inattentive driving. To make the comparison makes you a total low life jerk ... or jerkette.
She better get a good attorney because the prosecutor is going to know the law and represent the state. She might have 30 years to wish she had gotten a good attorney. The law isn’t dusty. It is printed every time a new copy of compiled laws are sent to the courts.
People who make mistakes that kill are criminals! Unless it's one of "us". /sarc
You sound like you're an old cop from Chappaquiddick.
Are you serious? I wasn't aware that a drunk 17 year old Laura Bush left the accident scene to hide out while the other girl was still alive and could have been saved had Laura not deserted her and gone for help.
Honestly, comparing apples and oranges doesn't quite cover your reasoning. Maybe comparing Hitler and Mother Teresa is more like it.
If she was behind the wheel that tipsy, she should be in jail. She chose to give the keys away. No crime committed.
He should have called a cab for both of them.
that's the way i see it too...
The person who died in the accident was a boy (Laura’s ex-boyfriend), and his father was in another car just behind him and witnessed the accident. The police report does not say that either driver had been drinking. See the Wikipedia biography for Laura Bush and link in footnote 11.
Ex-boyfriend? Wow, she planned that perfectly!
I didn't imply Laura had been drinking like Ted Kennedy had. The poster was trying to imply that the two situations were similar.
My mistake on the Gender of the teenager killed in the accident. I was relying on my faulty memory of the incident.
Thanks for the information.
You win. A mere individual without proper training and extensive field instruction duly recorded can deem an individual intoxicated. Just ask your Sheriff’s dept.
So sad.
If I’m not mistaken they fled the scene and so therefore they’re deciding to throw the book at ‘em.
No all that means is the State has to prove she knew she was handing over the keys. [/DA]
There seems to be uncertainty about whether Laura and the boy who was killed had actually dated or not, but it seems that he was someone she knew and liked.
My mistake on the footnote number--it should be number 10.
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