Posted on 04/21/2025 6:06:08 PM PDT by xxqqzz
SALEM, N.J. (AP) — The family of NHL hockey player Johnny Gaudreau and his brother Matthew listened in pain Tuesday as lawyers debated whether the men's own drinking contributed to their deaths when they were hit by an allegedly drunken and enraged driver as they cycled at night.
After nearly two hours of argument, a judge agreed the issue was moot under New Jersey criminal law — upholding all of the charges against the driver, including manslaughter and vehicular homicide.
“There’s no credence in the argument there was contributory negligence on the part of the cyclists,” said Superior Court Judge Michael Silvanio.
According to the defense, the Gaudreaus had blood-alcohol levels of .129 or above, higher than the .08 legal limit in New Jersey and the .087 blood alcohol content that police recorded for Sean Higgins. His lawyers had hoped to have the manslaughter and vehicular homicide charges reduced or dismissed.
“To say that their BAC’s may have contributed to the cause of death is a reach to say the least,” Assistant Prosecutor Michael Mestern argued.
Other drivers told police the brothers were riding safely on the edge of the road, not weaving into traffic, he said. Prosecutors have accused Higgins of being impaired by alcohol and fueled by road rage when he ran into them.
“There are four witnesses that witnessed the defendant speeding and illegally passing the Bronco on the right when he struck the brothers. The witnesses also saw the brothers riding single file, with the flow of traffic, on the fog line just prior to being struck by the defendant,” Mestern wrote in a memo this month.
(Excerpt) Read more at aol.com ...
The brothers were drunker than the defendant and were bicycling at night without lights on a rural highway. There is no law against drunk bicycling. Those rural highways in NJ often have less than a foot of pavement to the right of a white line, essentially no shoulder. What they were doing was perfectly legal, but maybe reckless.
Higgins thought a car was moving to the left to keep him from passing when it was actually passing the bicyclists. So Higgins passed on the right with his jeep, partly on the grass. The speed limit is 45 mph, so he was probably doing at least 60.
They were cycling at night without lights?
Geez !
Little known true story. Ray Bradbury went without a driver’s license and had others give him rides.
He used bicycles a lot.
Once he was stopped by police and issued a ticket for being drunk and “in charge of a bicycle.”
Did they have lights on their bicycles?
My bet is they didn’t.
“Higgins thought a car was moving to the left to keep him from passing when it was actually passing the bicyclists. So Higgins passed on the right with his jeep, partly on the grass. The speed limit is 45 mph, so he was probably doing at least 60.”
Wow, that is horrible.
There is in Florida...............
Cycling at night is dangerous enough even with lights. But I see people doing it without lights all the time.
Was he drinking Dandelion Wine?
End joke for the humor impaired.
So no they were not "bicycling at night".
I have to wonder at how many people just have to defend drunk drivers who GO OFF THE ROAD to kill people who are minding their own business because they are pissed at their mother and then DRIVE OFF because goodness knows nothing is ever the drunks fault.
Ha. Definite possibility.
I never met Sean Higgins, but many years ago, when I lived near them, I was good friends
with his parents, who are the dearest and kindest people.
My heart breaks for them.
Their firstborn, a son, was killed at the age of 7 in a playground accident
while playing in a neighbor’s yard. I went to the funeral.
Now they’re facing this.
How sad.
I had a friend busted for drunk walking.
He decided to walk home because he was drinking. He had to walk down a steep slope and back up the other side in the middle of nowhere. It was winter and he was wearing cowboy boots as the snow started to build up.
Cops happened to to be driving by and saw him slipping as he struggled down the hill so they wrote him up for “intoxicated in public”.
Oh boy. Here come all the FReeper bicycle haters. I was wondering just how long it would take before the bhit sags arrived.
The Florida law is written so that you cannot operate any type of vehicle while drunk.
That includes SKATEBOARDS, Bicycles, boats, canoes, paddleboards, anything that moves................
Yep...years ago my cousin got a ticket
in Florida for riding his bike drunk.
I think it even applies to rollerskates and rollerblades...........
Higgins deserves what he gets going off the road and hitting them.
It still seems a little reckless bicycling on a highway without a shoulder after sundown when drunk.
That Higgins is in deep trouble, being offered a plea bargain for 35 years. He killed a famous hockey player, and aggrevating circumstances passing on the right on a 2-lane highway without a shoulder.
Portella instead argued that the grand jury did not hear all of the facts before it approved charges that allege Higgins was intentionally reckless and left the scene.
So none of the facts presented had anything to do with proving the charges. A grand jury does not decide what facts are true but only whethr there is enough evidence to allow a full trial to take place. That will happen later here, if the defendant does not plead out.
There is in MA as well. Operating under the influence is not confined to autos.
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