Posted on 10/06/2014 4:35:53 AM PDT by Behind Liberal Lines
Salina, NY -- A Connecticut driver who admitted leaving the scene of a fatal crash last April on Electronics Parkway has until today to decide whether he wants to withdraw his guilty plea.
Chiragkumar Patel, 28, who was living in the United States on an expired student visa, told a judge last week that he didn't realize what he had pleaded guilty to Sept. 4. He was seconds away from going to state prison when he spoke in court.
Patel admitted driving the car that struck and killed bicyclist Michael Mahoney near the Thruway underpass. But Patel said he never realized he had hit a person.
That's important because under law, Patel must have known, or had reason to know, that he hit a person to be found guilty of the felony charge. Otherwise, it would be nothing more than a tragic accident.
In the end, though, it may not matter: Patel is expected to be deported at the conclusion of the criminal case. He has been held in jail with no bail at the request of federal authorities because of his illegal status.
Patel came from his native India to the United States legally to study in Connecticut. His visa expired, that he was allowed to stay as long as he remained in school. But he was not enrolled at the time of the crash.
It is time to check all international students and make sure they leave. If you don’t know you hit anyone YOU SHOULDN’T be DRIVING!!!
Citizen. Don’t you know that foreign students are a great source of income for the education industry? We wouldn’t want to upset that applecart, would we?
Foreign drivers make texting teenage drivers look like professionals. I’m surprised it took that long for him to change his plea, they seem to know the ins and outs of the legal system better than most Americans (likely from the free legal services that attorneys are falling over themselves to provide).
“He has been held in jail with no bail at the request of federal authorities because of his illegal status.”
Too bad for him that he’s Indian. If he was Hispanic he’d have been out by now.
Just remember, every seat taken by a foreigner in our prestigious universities is a seat that an American (think veteran or minority)can not take. There is a limited number of seats and we still don’t get it that after graduation, the foreigner is most likely going to take an American job and will eventually return to his country of origin with confidential information and technologies that will eventually be used against us. We have an (il)legal alien death wish.
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