ABATE OF MINNESOTA'S ENHANCED PENALITIES INIATIVE
The Problem
Many legislators who oppose ABATE of Minnesota's position on increased penalties simply refuse to acknowledge the problem. We offer examples to show that this is a serious problem that needs legislative action. We need middle ground in the charging of those who drive in a negligent manner and cause harm to others. Currently, if you are sober and drug free and kill or harm others by driving negligently, there are only two options for prosecutors: A misdemeanor charge, which is "slap on the wrist" or a felony, which needs to show that you intended to cause someone else harm (extremely difficult to prove). There is no middle ground in Minnesota and that is what ABATE of Minnesota is attempting to change legislatively.
If you have questions or comments, please contact us,
Mack Backlund
State Coordinator
ABATE of MN
763-226-9195
Todd Riba
Legislative Director
ABATE of MN
952-239-0929
The Following are Some Examples of the Problem.
http://www.startribune.com/local/minneapolis/122698754.html
A Minneapolis woman had been talking on her cell phone just before she hit and killed a pedestrian while driving on Grand Avenue in St. Paul last November, according to criminal charges filed this week in Ramsey County District Court.
Allissa Lynn Anderson, 31, is charged with misdemeanor counts of inattentive driving and speeding in connection with the Nov. 9 accident that killed Emma Holman, 24, of Bloomington.
Many careless drivers in Minnesota who kill someone end up facing misdemeanor charges because a felony charge requires proof that they acted in an extremely dangerous manner.
According to the charges, Anderson was driving east on Grand Avenue near Hamline Avenue about 7:15 p.m. when her car struck Holman.
Holman was not crossing at a street corner, police said after the accident.
Anderson told police that she was driving between 31 and 40 miles per hour in the 30-mph zone and she had been talking to a friend on her cell phone, the charges said. She said she had looked down as she finished the call and put the phone in her lap and she hit Holman just as she looked up. She didn't have time to step on the brakes, according to the charges.
"Because she looked away from the roadway and because she was traveling over the speed limit, the defendant failed to become and remain aware of the actual and potential hazards existing on Grand Avenue at that time, including the existence of pedestrian traffic," the criminal complaint said.
LORA PABST
http://www.kare11.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=941363
HASTINGS, Minn. -- A Dakota County judge found a St. Paul woman guilty of one misdemeanor count in a triple-fatal accident from 2008 on Tuesday -- a decision that has prompted the renewal of a debate over whether negligent drivers involved in fatal crashes should face stiffer penalties.
Judge Jerome Abrams acquitted 22-year-old Brittany Rose Mertz of St. Paul on three felony counts of criminal vehicular homicide.
Mertz also was acquitted on charges of criminal vehicular operation and reckless driving. The only charge she was convicted of was careless driving, a misdemeanor.
The charges stemmed from a collision in Inver Grove Heights that killed 30-year-old Brittany Beth Carlson of Zumbrota, her 2-year-old son, Brandon, and 4-year-old Tamaya Phillips of Minneapolis. Two other children in Carlson's vehicle were seriously injured.
Mertz waived a jury trial and had her case decided by the judge.
"It's hard to sit down with a family who've lost a loved one, or had a loved one seriously injured, and you tell them that this is, in essence, a traffic ticket. That's no different than if someone drove off the road and hit a mailbox," said Dakota County Attorney James Backstrom.
In his decision, District Court Judge Jerome Abrams wrote: "the events leading to the initial loss of control... do not reach the level of 'gross negligence' required by the law."
At issue, prosecutors say, is the fact that it's exceptionally difficult to prove a sober drive is grossly negligent -- which is necessary to convict a driver of most felony charges.
"It's not easy to prove gross negligence under the law, which is standard... That's what we have to prove to convict someone of a felony when there's no drugs or alcohol involved, and there were none in this case," Backstrom said.
That's why, advocates of the legal change argue, there should be a "middle of the road" option that would require responsible, convicted drivers to face a stiffer penalty. Backstrom has long argued for a change at the Minnesota State Legislature that would make convicted "negligent" drivers in fatal crashes guilty of "gross misdemeanors," not just "misdemeanors."
Some lawmakers definitely support the change.
"When someone acts like an idiot and they kill someone, they need to be held accountable. And unfortunately, under our current law, that doesn't take place," said Rep. Pat Garofalo, a Republican from Farmington.
Last session and for the fifth time, Garofalo authored a bill to make just such a change. The House passed the bill last session, but it failed to make it out of the committee level in the Senate.
"It had some trouble there with some of the members of our committee having some trouble with the word, 'careless,' the word, 'careless operation,'" said Sen. Bill Ingebrigtsen, a Republican from Alexandria.
Ingebrigtsen said he supports the change in law -- and hopes it comes up again next session.
"The victims who are family members are sometimes forgotten about, and there really is not a lot of retribution for the crime that has been committed," Ingebrigtsen said.
Under the legal change, drivers convicted of "gross misdemeanors" would face longer jail and probation time.
(Copyright 2011 by KARE. All Rights Reserved.)
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Careless drivers who kill should face tougher penalties, victims' families say, and a prosecutor and legislator agree.
Article by: HERÓN MÁRQUEZ ESTRADA , Star Tribune
Updated: October 10, 2011 - 10:45 AM
Three people dead, two children injured, one woman convicted for misdemeanor careless driving. Last week's acquittal of Brittany Mertz on far more serious vehicular homicide charges in a 2008 crash has renewed calls for tougher penalties against negligent drivers who kill. "A misdemeanor sentence for killing three people isn't justice," said Dakota County Attorney James Backstrom, whose office tried the Mertz case.
The collision in Inver Grove Heights happened when Mertz, now 22, lost control of her vehicle while reportedly passing a camera or other device to a passenger. Killed were a mother and her two children; two other children in that car were hurt.
"It's very frustrating," said Backstrom, who has been lobbying for years to strengthen laws against careless drivers. In the past five years, there have been eight such careless driving cases where the drivers were only found guilty of misdemeanor offenses because drugs or alcohol were not involved.
He said each case reminds him of the one that made him realize that things had to change: The July 2006 death of Jacquelynn Devney, 18, killed early one morning by a sleepy driver as she weeded her yard in Farmington. "I said, 'Enough is enough,'" recalled Backstrom, whose frustration only increased when all he could get was a misdemeanor charge of careless driving because no drugs or alcohol were involved.
Mertz, formerly Brittany Krueger, will be sentenced Nov. 22, and she is unlikely to serve lengthy jail time. "The same thing happened in our case," said Carol Iverson, who lost three relatives shortly before Christmas 2009 in Lakeville when a teenager hit them head-on while he was driving in the wrong lane. "He was only charged with one count of careless driving for killing three." In that case, the teenager spent six weekends in jail. That kind of sentence has Backstrom, Iverson and others on a mission to increase the penalties in such cases. "It makes me ill that people keep getting by with this," said Iverson, now a member of Minnesotans for Safe Driving. "I've made it my goal to get these laws changed. Every day you hear about another one in the news. It seems a lot of them come out of Dakota County."
Local efforts
Backstrom and other politicians in Dakota County share that perception. Local politicians have been pushing the Legislature for years to change the laws and toughen the penalties to make careless driving resulting in death at least a gross misdemeanor, which would mean a year in jail.
"Unfortunately, this is a tragedy we continue to see in Minnesota," said Rep. Pat Garofalo, whose district covers southern Dakota County. "It's sad how many families are being [affected] by this. The law doesn't allow us to hold [negligent drivers] accountable." Garofalo and others equate the fight over negligent driving with the long struggle to get drunken driving viewed as more than a mistake or a one-time occurrence that did not merit jail or prison time. "A drunk driver rarely means to injure or kill someone," Garofalo said. "We still punish them. This is a problem that needs to be fixed and it needs to be fixed now."
Nancy Johnson, president of Minnesotans for Safe Driving, said situations like the Mertz case are too common. Judges and juries have little leeway in determining whether someone was grossly negligent in a fatal crash, especially if no drugs or alcohol were involved, she said. "What I consider gross negligence and what you consider gross negligence and what the law considers gross negligence is different," she said.
Johnson and others say the only benefit is that public perception shifts ever so slightly as outrage increases. "Drunken driving used to be considered like non-alcohol-related crashes," Johnson said. "It took time. You had to have a groundswell for the victims. It's something that people have to start thinking about."
Wendy Russell agrees. Her son Joshua Baldwin was killed in an October 2009 crash with an inattentive driver. A passenger in her son's car was blinded and a third person in the car suffered disfiguring injuries, Russell said. Adding to the grief were trials and legal fights that, she felt, denied her justice. "If there is no alcohol they say they didn't mean to do it," Russell said. "It's wrong. It's just wrong. There's no accountability. It's like a slap in the face. It was like someone punched a hole in my soul again." Heron Marquez
- 952-746-3281
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The Solution
We need to encourage our elected officials that the time has come to pass tough legislation that will help deter these tragic crashes from happening and will grant some measure of justice for the victims of these preventable crashes.
Motorcycle PAC of Minnesota
Contributions to Motorcycle PAC of MN allows us to make political contributions to elected officials that are in a position to protect our motorcycling freedoms and help get this important legislation passed. By pooling individual contributions we are able to have a much more visible and substantial impact. This is grass roots involvement at its finest. It takes money to get elected and to stay in office. The elected officials that receive our PAC contributions will remember us. For information on Motorcycle PAC of MN please contact:
Mark Senn
7160 Willow View Cove
Chanhassen, MN 55317
952-949-2272
Bikerday at the Capitol 2012
Bikerday at the State Capitol will be Wednesday, February 8th and all freedom minded motorcyclists need to be there. Constituent based, grass roots lobbying is a very influential tool. A Strong showing at Bikerday will send a message to the Minnesota Legislature that we are serious about getting this bill passed into law. Visit the ABATE of MN website at www.abatemn.org for more information.
Please pre-register for this important event if you plan on attending.
Contact your elected officials
The following sample letters can be used as guides. The letters that you write should be in your own words. Please consider writing letters to your County Sheriff, County Attorney, MN State Senator, and your MN State Representative. Please contact your county officials as soon as possible. To find out who your State Senator and State Representatives are go to www.leg.state.mn.us/leg/districtfinder.aspx
It is very important that you contact your county and state level elected officials. Do not contact U.S. Senators Klobuchar or Franken and do not contact your U.S. Representative. If you have any doubt on who to contact please call or email Todd Riba, ABATE of MN Legislative Director, @ 952-239-0929 or toddriba@gmail.com.
County Sheriff &County Attorney
Dear Sheriff XXXXX
There is an effort underway to amend MN statute 2010, section169.13. (S.F.201 & H.F.68). The goal of these proposed changes is to provide increased penalties for actions resulting in death of others when alcohol or drugs are not involved.
1.6 Section 1. Minnesota Statutes 2010, section 169.13, is amended by adding a
1.7subdivision to read:
1.8 Subd. 2a. Careless driving resulting in death. (a) A person who drives, operates,
1.9or halts a vehicle, anywhere in this state, carelessly or heedlessly in disregard of the rights
1.10of others or in a manner that endangers or is likely to endanger any property or any person,
1.11including any driver or passenger of a vehicle or other person, that results in the death of a
1.12person, is guilty of a gross misdemeanor.
1.13(b) Nothing in this subdivision or section 609.035 limits the power of the state to
1.14punish a person for conduct that constitutes a crime under any other law of this state.
1.15EFFECTIVE DATE.This section is effective August 1, 2012, and applies to
1.16violations committed on or after that date.
The objective is to add provisions so a person could be charged with a gross misdemeanor under some circumstances. The aim of this change is not to make people criminals, but to make people accountable for their actions while conducting the important task of operating a vehicle. We believe the changes proposed will add a level of accountability and serve as a deterrent to driving in a careless manner.
We realize you see the results of this inattentive driving far too frequently. That is why I am writing today. Do you believe we need middle ground; do you support such a change to MN statute 2010, section 169.13?
Thank you in advance for any support you can offer.
Name
address
State Representatives and State Senators
Dear Representative or State Senator (Your State Representative's Senators Full Name)
I am writing to ask for your support of legislation to raise the accountability of those who cause carnage on our roadways. While Minnesota has been cracking down on impaired and unlicensed drivers, those who are sober and licensed face little to no penalty for the damage caused by their casual approach to the serious business of operating a motor vehicle. Minnesota should increase the penalties for causing death while driving in an irresponsible manner no matter what, if anything, they are doing when behind the wheel. The thought of losing ones license and the financial hit and probation requirements that go along with a gross misdemeanor would make people think twice before taking a chance that may save a few minutes but ends up killing someone.
Please support this legislation in the upcoming session,
Thank you,
(Your Full Name and Address)
Dear Representative/Senator XXXXXXX
There is an effort underway to amend MN statute 2010, section169.13. (S.F.201 & H.F.68). The goal of these proposed changes is to provide increased penalties for actions resulting in death of others when alcohol or drugs are not involved.
1.6 Section 1. Minnesota Statutes 2010, section 169.13, is amended by adding a
1.7subdivision to read:
1.8 Subd. 2a. Careless driving resulting in death. (a) A person who drives, operates,
1.9or halts a vehicle, anywhere in this state, carelessly or heedlessly in disregard of the rights
1.10of others or in a manner that endangers or is likely to endanger any property or any person,
1.11including any driver or passenger of a vehicle or other person, that results in the death of a
1.12person, is guilty of a gross misdemeanor.
1.13(b) Nothing in this subdivision or section 609.035 limits the power of the state to
1.14punish a person for conduct that constitutes a crime under any other law of this state.
1.15EFFECTIVE DATE.This section is effective August 1, 2012, and applies to
1.16violations committed on or after that date.
The objective is to add provisions so a person could be charged with a gross misdemeanor under some circumstances. The aim of this change is not to make people criminals, but to make people accountable for their actions while conducting the important task of operating a vehicle. We believe the changes proposed will add a level of accountability and serve as a deterrent to driving in a careless manner.
Unfortunately this effort has been stalled in The Senate Judiciary and Public Safety Committee by Senator Julianne Ortman. That is why I am writing today. Do you believe we need middle ground in the charging of these cases? Do you support such a change to MN statute 2010, section 169.13? Would you talk with Senator Ortman and see what we have to do to get her support so this important piece of legislation can move forward
Thanks in advance for any help you can provide
Name
Address
A.B .A.T.E. of Minnesota's Position
Increased Penalties for Careless Driving
Each year, motorcyclists, pedestrians, bicyclists, vehicle drivers and passengers are killed by other motorists who enter the roadway into their path, turn left into their path, or otherwise cause crashes by failing to yield right of way. Currently these are misdemeanor citations if the vehicle operator is found to be sober and licensed. ABATE of Minnesota feels that Minnesota should strengthen the penalties for those who kill or seriously injure others while driving in a negligent manner, when not alcohol or drug related, and raise the offense to the level of gross misdemeanor.