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Keep Gaudreau brothers’ intoxication levels out of fatal crash trial, prosecutor says
nj.com ^ | April 9, 2025 | Matt Gray

Posted on 04/12/2025 8:19:30 PM PDT by xxqqzz

Prosecutors want a judge to bar admission of the Gaudreau brothers’ toxicology reports from the trial of the man charged with killing them last year.

Those toxicology reports show that hockey star Johnny Gaudreau, 31, and Matthew R. Gaudreau, 29, were intoxicated when Sean M. Higgins, 44, of Pilesgrove, hit them with his vehicle as they bicycled along a rural road in Salem County on the evening of Aug. 29, according to court documents.

Higgins, who prosecutors say was also intoxicated at the time, was indicted in December on two counts of first-degree aggravated manslaughter, two counts of second-degree vehicular homicide, second-degree leaving the scene of a fatal accident and fourth-degree tampering with physical evidence.

Defense attorneys argue the indictment should be dismissed because the grand jury wasn’t told about possible “contributory negligence” by the Gaudreau brothers in their own deaths, namely the fact that they were drunk.

Prosecutor Michael Mestern countered that the brothers’ toxicology reports are irrelevant to the case because there is no law against bicycling while intoxicated. He also pointed to multiple witness accounts as proof that the crash was entirely Higgins’ fault.

Higgins’ attorneys revealed in February court filings that Johnny Gaudreau had a blood alcohol concentration of 0.129% when he was killed, while his brother Matthew Gaudreau had a reading of 0.134%.

Both readings were higher than Higgins’ alleged blood alcohol concentration of 0.087%, which was above the legal limit of 0.08% for drivers.

No evidence has been presented to claim the brothers were riding their bikes improperly and witnesses to the crash told detectives the men were not in the roadway when they were hit.

(Excerpt) Read more at nj.com ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; US: New Jersey
KEYWORDS: hockey; manslaughter
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The brothers bicycling had blood alcohol levels higher than that of the guy who hit them. Driver charged with manslaughter thought the car passing the bicyclists was moving to the left to keep him from passing, so he passed on the right partly on the grass and hit the bicyclists including the hockey star.
1 posted on 04/12/2025 8:19:30 PM PDT by xxqqzz
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To: xxqqzz

Good gosh, is anyone in the article NOT intoxicated? Crazy stuff.


2 posted on 04/12/2025 8:22:07 PM PDT by TXBlair (We will not forget Benghazi.)
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To: xxqqzz

So he literally drove off the road and hit them.

I guess he wins the prize for most impaired that day.


3 posted on 04/12/2025 8:27:00 PM PDT by Vermont Lt
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To: xxqqzz
...he passed on the right partly on the grass...

Uh huh,

4 posted on 04/12/2025 8:29:09 PM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum (Democrats are the Party of anger, hate and violence.)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

Well, I think he was driving a jeep, so it might drive OK partly on the grass at 70 mph or so.

The hockey brothers bicycling was perfectly legal. However, maybe their being drunk might have led them to go bicycling at night on an unlit rural highway without a shoulder. The defense is arguing that is contributory negligence, but the prosecution is saying it is irrelevant.


5 posted on 04/12/2025 8:37:51 PM PDT by xxqqzz
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To: TXBlair

Bob Dylan singing “Everybody’s trying to get Stoned!!”


6 posted on 04/12/2025 8:38:14 PM PDT by lee martell
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To: xxqqzz
Drunken angry jerk decides to drive off the road and on into the area reserved for other people and hits people who are just going about their lawful business.

I think second degree murder is about right.

7 posted on 04/12/2025 8:38:38 PM PDT by Harmless Teddy Bear ( Not my circus. Not my monkeys. But I can pick out the clowns at 100 yards.)
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To: xxqqzz
Well, I think he was driving a jeep, so it might drive OK partly on the grass at 70 mph or so.

It's illegal to:

  1. pass on the right

  2. drive outside of a lane

8 posted on 04/12/2025 8:48:34 PM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum (Democrats are the Party of anger, hate and violence.)
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To: xxqqzz
...bicycling at night...

If they did not have lights on their bikes they were breaking the law.

9 posted on 04/12/2025 8:52:11 PM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum (Democrats are the Party of anger, hate and violence.)
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To: xxqqzz

They weren’t driving a car.


10 posted on 04/12/2025 9:02:02 PM PDT by ifinnegan (Democrats kill babies and harvest their organs to sell)
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To: lee martell

Ha. I’ve heard of that singer. A shame his quotation in my tagline is coming true.


11 posted on 04/12/2025 9:19:09 PM PDT by frank ballenger (There's a battle outside and it's raging. It'll soon shake your windows and rattle your walls. )
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To: frank ballenger

Is that quote; re; A Battle Outside, from Dylan? Not familiar with it.

I heard several popular songs back then with soft, though ominous cello-like tones of revolution. i.e. “..what it is, ain’t exactly clear!..”


12 posted on 04/12/2025 9:26:11 PM PDT by lee martell
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To: lee martell

😂


13 posted on 04/12/2025 9:27:48 PM PDT by TXBlair (We will not forget Benghazi.)
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To: xxqqzz

Somehow, for some reason, I would guess the Jeep would be slightly heavier and moving slightly faster than the bicycles. Jeeps are designed with a ‘crumple zone’. On a bicycle, the rider IS the crumple zone!

The Jeep driver was intoxicated and tried to pass on the right. Impaired driving and two counts of vehicular manslaughter, at the minimum, seems appropriate.

The fact that the two bike riders were intoxicated does not lessen the guilt of the driver. Lock him up for the appropriate time ‘earned’ by his actions.


14 posted on 04/12/2025 9:34:07 PM PDT by A Formerly Proud Canadian (Congrats to Canaduh's new Crime Minister, Marx Carney. Every circus needs a Carney!)
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To: lee martell

RE: Not familiar with it.

Was from The Times they Are A Changin’.
Context is different now but the Trump Revolution and the beginnings of the Left’s physical war with burning Tesla dealers and attempted assassinations are definitely shaking the windows and rattling the walls.

“I accept chaos. I am not sure if it accepts me.”
——Back of Another Side of Bob Dylan album sleeve.


1981 interview with Peer LaFarge:
After describing some of his firearms he has at home...
“Guns have been a great part of America’s past,” and “I don’t think gun control is making any difference at all. Just makes it harder for people who need to be protected.”

((After he and his family were harassed at home by hippie types and druggies including one who confronted his wife, one who hung upside down to peek into their bedroom window and a couple they discovered in the bed after having sex, he complained to the local sheriff who warned him sternly that he—Dylan—would be arrested if they did anything to the intruders and the guy who peered in the window could sue if he had fallen—said to a friend “Anyone who comes in my house, I am ready for them. I have the firearms and I’ll use them.”



15 posted on 04/12/2025 10:09:28 PM PDT by frank ballenger (There's a battle outside and it's raging. It'll soon shake your windows and rattle your walls. )
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

“If they did not have lights on their bikes they were breaking the law.”

They probably did have their bicycle lights (LED these days) on and the drunk driver homed in on these lights.
-
-
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The phenomenon where a tired or distracted driver is drawn toward a light by the side of the road is commonly referred to as the “moth effect.” This term draws an analogy to how moths are attracted to light sources. In this context, drivers may unintentionally fixate on bright or flashing lights, such as emergency vehicle lights, and inadvertently steer toward them. This can increase the risk of collisions, particularly at night or in low-visibility conditions


16 posted on 04/12/2025 10:20:44 PM PDT by dennisw (💯🇺🇸 Truth is Hate to those who Hate the Truth. 🇺🇸💯)
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To: frank ballenger

I didn’t know about Bob’s personal experience with
fan(-ATICS). I never followed him that closely, and only enjoyed a few of his songs, but I know he became very famous, very quickly, compared to other acoustic performers of his day.

**Rorshach Effect:People saw what they wanted to see/ what they demanded to see in his persona.
Rudolph Valentino/ Frank Sinatra/ Elvis/Lennon...Same Story


17 posted on 04/12/2025 10:20:52 PM PDT by lee martell
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To: lee martell

Joan Baez was a long time lover and friend of Bob Dylan. (She recently revealed in the dvd I Am A Noise that she was diagnosed with dissociative identity disorder, which can stem from childhood trauma. Her father molested her.)

She said that in all the years people thought they were following him as an activist, Dylan never even once was in a protest march or action. Young people would come up to her and say “If we go to the march tomorrow will Bob Dylan be there?” “I’d say no, you morons, he never goes to marches.”
One guy friend claims “He was only into all that antiwar stuff in songs to try to impress Suze Rotolo. Once that thing broke up he dropped the whole pose.”


18 posted on 04/12/2025 10:37:15 PM PDT by frank ballenger (There's a battle outside and it's raging. It'll soon shake your windows and rattle your walls. )
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To: xxqqzz
You are missing the point.

The question should be, “Which one is the Democrat?”

19 posted on 04/13/2025 1:29:43 AM PDT by HIDEK6 (God bless Donald Trump)
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To: xxqqzz

I believe that the jury should not have facts hidden from them. In this case this detail would have no effect on any person with a brain. But in some cases the Judge does keep relevant information from the jury in order to unjustly throw the verdict. For instance like that judge in NY throwing Trumps trial by selecting the evidence that fits the verdict that the judge desires.


20 posted on 04/13/2025 1:37:32 AM PDT by Revel
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