 Plea Bargin From DA's office
What is the name of your state?What is the name of your state?New York State-
In Sept. my brother was involved in a head-on collision with another car. My brother had been drinking, and had a BAC of .13. The driver of the other car was killed in the collision. My brother was arraigned on a few charges, the worst of which include Vehicular Manslaughter in the 2nd degree, and Vehicular Assalt in the 2nd degree (there was a passenger in the other vehicle as well). He currently has a public defender that is urging him to accept a plea bargin from the DA's office, dropping the charges down to Criminally Negligent Homicide, serving a sentence of 2 years in prison, with no chance of parole (it's my brother's first and only offense of any kind). The "twist" to the whole situation, is that the driver of the other vehicle that was killed, had been drinking as well, and had a BAC of .29 more than TWICE what my brother's had been. The person killed & the passenger had just been kicked out of a bar a mile up the road for causing a "scene" (they had been cut-off, and didn't like take to it well), and were seen by several witnesses tearing out of the parking lot without their headlights on. The cops apparently filed charges based upon the passenger's deposition. At the scene of the accident, the passenger "just remembered seeing headlights", and in an interview after being in the hospital, THEN claimed that my brother crossed over into their lane, and they couldn't miss him. They interviewed my brother that night at the hospital, while he was totally incoherent & on Dopamine (it took them an hour & 10 minutes to cut him out of the vehicle, and another 1/2 hr to get him to the hospital, so he was in a LOT of pain). They claimed to have tried interviewing my brother the day after the accident, but couldn't, because he was going in to surgery (which is false, because he didn't get in to surgery until 4 days afterwards).
My question is this... this is OBVIOUSLLY not a cut-and-dry case. Given what little evidence that they have my brother actually CAUSED this accident, should he take the plea bargain, or try & take it to trial? Is this a "reasonable" plea bargain the state is proposing? The public defender does not appear to be too aggressive, and has "mixed up" my brother's case with someone elses' several times, leading us to beleive he is not exploring all avenues, and trying to close the case & take the first plea that comes along. | 
12-08-2005, 10:19 PM
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