It’s been a week since the fatal accident, and I don’t see any info having been released on what the driver’s BAC was, or even if a test was done.
Shouldn’t this be a matter of public record? Or are things done differently in Baltimore?
I doubt the BAC report would be released unless charges were filed. It does seem the police are dragging their feet here. This is what I referred to when police sometimes just let things fritter away. But I doubt they’ll be able to make it go away.
The Epi church is looking into the matter.
“But you screw one goat…”
Faintly despicable, this.
She was caught driving drunk and stoned once. Now she’s murdered someone by driving her car up against him from behind while drunk. Somehow this is okay, but since she didn’t do it in Brooklyn but instead in a smaller town, we hear about it and suddenly it is the fault of the small town?
Interesting. I’ve got a shocking piece of news for you here. DUI incidents get noticed even when they don’t occur in Mayberry. :rolleyes:
The problem with that line of thinking is that when someone dies, the police seem much more motivated to find the hit and run driver. Simply injure someone or cause their vehicle to be inoperable and you might well get away with it*. Once someone dies it seems the police put more resources towards finding the culpable party.
*I’m not encouraging fleeing the scene of an accident, just noting that the police aren’t going to put out public alerts to find someone if they dent the rear bumper of my old clunker.
That may be so, but if the police write their report and in the report make statements that they believe that she is wholly or primarily culpable for the accident, it would often take a lot of evidence, effort, and attorney fees to make a court find her not culpable for this accident.
Anyone mentioned yet that she’s not the first hit and run bishop?
Was she drunk?
Not much in the way of updates, but at least the local PD is openly communicating.
It can take a while. I followed a similar case that happened last year, and the initial information was that it would take up to 30 days for the BAC to be released. Ultimately the number appeared in the media 36 days after the accident. Articles said that the police had just received the information.
That’s gotta be bullshit. They fine and convict people on breathalyser tests that give results in 30 seconds. If they’re doing extra testing, it’s to cover their asses do to some external influences.
Drunk and charged with manslaughter. BAC of 0.22
My religious friends often mention that god works in mysterious ways. Maybe the cyclist needed killin and the bishop was used for the hit. ?
There’s info online from the Maryland State Police forensic lab unit that says that as of late 2013 their BAC turnaround time was around three weeks (Baltimore P.D. may use a different lab).
From a site with info on Maryland DUI enforcement:
“Administrative Per Se: If you fail the roadside sobriety test or blow a 0.08% or more in the field, the chances are pretty high that you will be arrested at that point. Depending on the officer’s tendencies or discretion, you may have to fork over your driver license before you are read your rights and cuffed. Yes, you will be handcuffed. Face it, you will be under arrest and headed to jail.”
Doesn’t seem like any of that happened in this case. You can of course refuse testing (and pay the consequences later), at least in an ordinary DUI case. One would think refusal in this particular instance would have been newsworthy.
Charged with driving drunk and texting. Quite the combination.
But there’s an unbroken chain in what you describe. In this case, she left the scene so they had to investigate & determine she had consumed alcohol beforehand. Otherwise, a first year law student would be able to get her off with reasonable doubt with a story like this, “She was driving sober, hit him, panicked, went home, had two doubles, realized the enormity of what happened & immediately returned. Further, because she returned so quickly after consuming the alcohol, it wasn’t in her bloodstream yet, so the DUI charge should be dismissed also.” Yeah, I think it’s BS, but all they need to do is convince one juror of this story & she walks. I’ve read stories of stranger happening.
My outrage is in the bullshitedness of the laws. Tom Palermo is no less dead than if he had been accidentally shot while she was robbing a store, yet her penalty will be far, far less.
Can a bishop be “busted down” to priest? I mean, can she be defrocked as a bishop, but allowed to go back to being a priest? If that is the case, would she ever be able to work back up to being a bishop? (not that it would happen, but would the possibility exist, or would she be barred from becoming a bishop again?)
Can she keep her orders and be a “non-stipendiary” priest, which is to say, she can’t take a job as a rector, or some other job that requires a person to be a priest, but she can still give sermons, and conduct a Eucharist, so she could fill in for a priest who was ill, or something?
This could well be, but the claim was that it took 30+ days to get the results of the blood-alcohol test. Surely it might take 30+ days to do a thorough investigation, but not to just get test results.
Are they doing a blood test? A Breathalyzer might take minutes, but a blood sample test would have to go to a lab, I would guess. In MD, I believe you have the option of which type of test you are going to submit to (if submitting to a test; automatic loss of license if you refuse).
Maybe it’s 30 days to release the results to the public.
Have you not seen the odd and erratic way that bicycles move? Clearly it was bishop takes horsey-guy.
Yes, I think all of that would be possible, depending on the findings and recommendations of the ecclesiastical court if she were convicted, and the subsequent decision of the bishop diocesan (her boss). We believe in forgiveness, of course, as Jesus taught, but I think it exceedlngly unlikely she would ever become a bishop again if removed as such now.
Yeah. Ask that cyclists family how forgiving they’re feeling this week.
Second serious offence, this one results in manslaughter.
Off to jail she should go. Stripped of all office and treated like a normal civilian.
Here’s the NYT on the case: The Bishop, the Cyclist and a Death on the Road - The New York Times