Free Republic

AUSTIN – A state judge on Tuesday refused to throw out an indictment accusing former Gov. Rick Perry of abusing his veto authority to try to force out a local prosecutor. Perry, who is actively eyeing another presidential bid, was indicted last summer. The charges stem from his 2013 threat to veto funding for a public corruption unit overseen by Travis County District Attorney Rosemary Lehmberg unless she resigned after a drunken-driving arrest. Lehmberg stayed in office after serving jail time, and Perry axed the funding. The Republican said that Lehmberg, a Democrat, had lost the public’s confidence. A grand...

David Barajas was acquitted Wednesday over charges that he shot and killed a drunk driver who had earlier hit and killed his two sons. Barajas was on trial for fatally shooting Jose Banda, who drove into Barajas and his 11-and-12-year-old sons while they were pushing a truck that had run out of gas. Barajas survived the incident, but his two young boys were killed. The prosecutors in the case said Barajas went home to get a gun and returned to shoot and kill Banda, the Associated Press reports.

( Family's outrage after drunk hit-and-run driver is sentenced to just 120 DAYS in prison for killing man who lost wife and daughter in similar incident ) A drunk driver who killed a 57-year-old motorcyclist when he sped through a red light last year will only have to spend 120 days in prison - a light sentence that has infuriated the victim's already heartbroken family. Ronald O'Kelly, 25, plead guilty to charges of involuntary vehicular manslaughter due to intoxication and fleeing the scene on Friday, in connection with the tragic April 2013 accident that killed Kansas City man Leroy 'Buddy'...

The McAllen Police Department is facing a big lawsuit, after a sergeant allegedly failed to prevent a drunk driver from getting behind the wheel. Bars and clubs are sometimes sued after serving drinks to a customer involved in drunk driving accidents, but a case filed in March points to a McAllen police sergeant for failing to prevent a drunk driver from taking the life of an Edinburg man. Two years ago, Jose Mata was taken from his wife and son, when police say Zulai Zamora rammed the back of his motorcycle at the intersection of Jackson Rd. and University Drive...

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) - Fleeing police, a driver gunned a sedan through a street barricade and into a crowd of South by Southwest festival attendees shortly after midnight Thursday, killing two people, injuring 23 others and casting a pall over one of the nation’s hippest celebrations of music, movies and technology. The driver struck multiple pedestrians around 12:30 a.m. on a block filled with concertgoers, then sped down the street, hitting and killing a man from the Netherlands on a bicycle and an Austin woman on a moped, Austin Police Chief Art Acevedo said. The driver eventually crashed into a...

Boy, 3, killed after 'drunk driving illegal immigrant with no insurance slammed into family's vehicle leaving them unable to pay for funeral' A three-year-old Utah boy has been killed after an allegedly drunk driving illegal immigrant rear-ended his family's car while it was stopped at a red light, causing a five-vehicle pile up. Zane Thurber, who was strapped into his car-seat in the back of his dad Matt's Subaru, died instantly in the horrific collision that occurred at a Taylorsville intersection Saturday night. Witnesses said suspect Manuel de Jesus Guinea, 55, was driving at about 70 mph shortly before he...

Prosecutors were pushing for 16-year-old Ethan Couch to spend 20 years in prison. However, State District Judge Jean Boyd sentenced Couch to a decade of probation. There was no debate about who was behind the wheel last June, when Couch plowed into and killed four people. Couch has admitted to being the driver, and court records show his blood alcohol level was .24 at the time of the crash, three times the legal limit for an adult. Prosecutors also presented evidence that Couch and some friends stole beer from a Burleson Walmart on June 15, the night of the crash....

A judge has let off a 16-year-old boy who killed four people while driving drunk after the teen's lawyers claimed his rich parents spoiled him and never taught him about consequences. Ethan Couch of Keller, Texas, had faced 20 years behind bars but walked away with 10 years of probation Tuesday, something that angered his victims' families. 'Money always seems to keep (Couch) out of trouble,' Eric Boyles, whose wife and daughter were killed in the June 15 crash, told the Star Telegram after sentencing. 'Ultimately today, I felt that money did prevail. If (he) had been any other youth,...

COLUMBIA, SC — An undocumented Mexican immigrant received the maximum 15-year sentence for felony DUI causing great bodily injury Thursday morning in a Richland County courtroom. Santos Gomez, 48, who his attorney said slipped into the country illegally, pleaded guilty and apologized in Spanish just before State Circuit Judge Michael Nettles pronounced sentence. “I never wanted to cause harm to anybody,” an interpreter translated for Gomez. Gomez was high on a mix of beer and methamphetamine in September 2012 when his car – traveling at 70 mph the wrong way down I-77 just north of Columbia – smashed into a...

An intoxicated, wrong-way driver who pleaded guilty to the killing in April of a Richmond Times-Dispatch newspaper carrier in South Hill had been convicted of DUI a year earlier and had never been licensed to drive in Virginia. Santos Gabriel-Tomas, 30, an immigrant from Guatemala in the country illegally, was convicted in March 2012 of driving under the influence of alcohol in neighboring Lunenburg County. He had never acquired a license to drive, but a judge in the earlier case revoked his privileges to obtain a license for 12 months as part of his punishment, Mecklenburg County Deputy Commonwealth’s Attorney...

EL PASO — Some immigrants fleeing violence in Mexico are being denied the right to make their case for asylum once they arrive at the border, according to human rights organizations. "Denying immigrants expressing fear for their lives a credible or reasonable fear interview leaves the individual isolated from the court system and violates both international and domestic law," said Ruben Garcia, director of Annunciation House, an organization that runs two shelters for migrants. "We are profoundly concerned about the denial of the rights of asylum seekers," he added. The organization is following several cases. Among them: Rosa Hilda Carrera,...

A drunken driver and her passenger who crashed into a power pole have the right to sue the power company, the Washington State Supreme Court decided. The case came after the drunken driver’s passenger filed a lawsuit saying the power pole was improperly placed. In summer 2005, Nathan Lowman and Jennifer Wilbur were drinking at the Country Corner Bar and Grill in Skagit County. Wilbur left along a curvy two-lane road with a 25 mph limit. The State Patrol said she was traveling at least 34 mph when her car left the roadway and hit a power pole. Court documents...

... The New London Fire Chief said Lentz was pinned in between the steering wheel and the seat. As rescuers tried to cut her out, a medical team monitored her vitals and after 45 minutes, determined she was ‘failing and fast.’ After about an hour, Lentz asked rescue workers to pray out loud. That’s when they say a priest suddenly appeared. “He came up and approached the patient, and offered a prayer,” Chief Raymond Reed told KHQA-TV. “It was a Catholic priest who had anointing oil with him. A sense of calmness came over her, and it did us as...

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials placed a hold on an Athens man arrested Saturday night following a drunken hit-and-run crash. Arturo Chamorro-Garduno, 49, a Mexican national who did not have a driver’s license, struck three parked cars in a North Bluff Road driveway and left the scene, Athens-Clarke police said. Police said he failed to negotiate a curve in the roadway. The owner of one of the damaged cars followed Chamorro-Garduno’s Jeep to his home nearby at 350 North Bluff Road. The victim then called police, who arrived and arrested the man.

Council Bluffs, IA -- It's a few seconds clip of Chrisshaun Moten. Perhaps too fast to show what his friends say was a passion for music. "Yeah, he was super-super talented," said Jade Jerkovich. She sang with the 17-year old and learned through social media Friday morning that the unthinkable had happened to her friend. "It was really-really surprising. You never think that that's going to happen to someone your so close to."

A day after watching a 6-year-old neighborhood boy fly through the air when he was fatally struck by a teenage driver suspected of being intoxicated, Jane Withers refused to leave the spot where the boy's mother tried in vain to save him. Overcome by the magnitude of the tragedy that left Brandon Abrams' family grieving and a 17-year-old jailed on intoxication manslaughter charges, Withers helped set up a makeshift memorial soon after the incident at 6 p.m. Thursday in her Northwest Side neighborhood. Brandon was waiting on the sidewalk for an ice cream truck when he was struck. According to...

ST. LOUIS, MO (KTVI) – Two surgeries later, a pregnant woman is in stable condition after being hit by a car. It happened Wednesday afternoon in Pine Lawn. Police say the driver is likely an illegal immigrant who was impaired at the time of the accident. Sharnay Hill, 22 wanted to share her story with FOX 2, but doctors felt her condition was still too fragile. Her cousin, Terrence Harvey, did share his thoughts about the incident. “She was supposed to have a ride home but she was catching the bus, and if she wouldn’t have been at that bus...

p>I won't run through the usual litany of misdeeds. If you don't already know them by heart, you'll commit them to memory eventually when you finally tire of liberals screeching at you for "hating women" while holding this guy up as a secular saint. (Chappaquiddick material is abundant online, but this post will get you up to speed on another legendary incident.) I've got to say, in all sincerity: I appreciate their brazenness in building a convention around the theme of a "war on women" while not only inviting Bill Clinton to be a headline speaker but having a video...

COLUMBUS, Ohio - The Ohio State Highway Patrol and the Delaware County Sheriff's office are working on a joint investigation after a man was struck by a car and killed after he was dropped off at Taco Bell. Investigators have put a state trooper on desk duty and two deputies on paid leave while they look into what happened on July 28. Just after 9 p.m, six 911 calls were made indicating that Uriel Juarez Popoca, 22, was driving erratically along I-71 in Delaware County. Two Delaware County deputies found him sitting in his vehicle in the median and when...

DENVER – A 33-year-old man is in custody for allegedly killing a two-year-old girl in a hit-and-run Tuesday evening. Omar Gonzalez faces charges of Felony Hit and Run Resulting in Death and Felony Abuse/Criminal Negligence Resulting in Death.