My apologies if this has already been posted, but the Champaign, IL News-Gazette is reporting:
URBANA – Jennifer Stark wiped away tears and nodded that she understood the maximum sentence a Champaign County judge gave her Wednesday for improper lane usage.
The 19-year-old Urbana woman appeared in court, flanked by her parents, to plead guilty to a petty offense and be sentenced for actions that led to the death of Matthew Wilhelm.
The 25-year-old former Champaign resident, a University of Illinois mechanical engineering graduate working for Caterpillar in Peoria, died on Sept. 8 from head injuries he received Sept. 2 when Stark hit him with her car because she was downloading ring tones to her cell phone instead of paying attention to driving.
Mr. Wilhelm was bicycling north on Illinois 130 east of Urbana when he was struck from behind about 7:15 p.m. Stark was so far off the road that she hit Mr. Wilhelm from behind with the driver’s side of her car. He was wearing a helmet.
“I can only apply the law I have in front of me, not as I wish it would be,” Judge Richard Klaus told Stark and the approximately dozen others who had gathered to see her sentence. They included the parents of Mr. Wilhelm and other friends and relatives of the Wilhelm family who have mobilized forces to try to get the law changed regarding distracted drivers.
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Read the entire article for more. She killed a cyclist because she was downloading ring tones to her cell phone. And all she got was a fine for “improper lane usage.”
Stay safe out there, people. The world is full of idiots.
that makes me ill. What ever happened to vehicular homicide. Not to mention that with three serious driving infractions in less than three years she should have been on a probationary license anyway.
$1000 fine, traffic school and some kind of unsupervised probation.
Basically, she got the maximum for a traffic ticket.
The law is sometimes inadequate to address situations like this. It appears as though there is no “criminal negligence” statute that applies and that the prosecutor believed that her actions didn’t rise to the level of recklessness.
What a load of crap. I hate reading this kind of shit. The idiot woman was NOT paying attention while driving a vehicle which can easily kill someone either on a bike or in another car. And for a fuckin ring tone. Cell phones should be banned in cars…period. no using them for anything.
I hope she has nightmares about this for the rest of her life.
Why not make her tour high schools and give speeches to students about the importance of paying attention while driving. I think that would be much more useful than fines or jail? My .02
As an Illinois resident, I’ve forwarded this to the State Attorney General, and all of my State representatives. If you live in the state, I suggest doing the same.
This crap makes me sick.
Per the state of Illinois, the value of a human’s life is now a paltry $1000 if they happen to be riding a bicycle.
maximum penalty my ass.
if she’d hit a pedestrian, she’d be in jail, where she should be right now. DA should have prosecuted her for criminal negligence, or whatever the Illinois law is. (One of the other posts has it).
Yes, the world is full of idiots. Sounds like that inlcudes the DA and the judge.
What a load of crap. I hate reading this kind of shit. The idiot woman was NOT paying attention while driving a vehicle which can easily kill someone either on a bike or in another car. And for a fuckin ring tone. Cell phones should be banned in cars…period. no using them for anything.
I hope she has nightmares about this for the rest of her life.
Amen. i see more people screwing up BADLY because of cell phone usage.
recently i went to Columbus for a vet appointment, and called the state police 3 times on the way back to Cincinnati. people literally dialing on their phone, driving at high speeds, and weaving all over the roads. i don’t drive much these days–due to a home office set up–but what i see these days is horrifying.
what will it take for some accountability?
that crying girl makes me want to puke. she was only crying because she didn’t want to get into trouble. what goes around comes around, she’ll have to live with that.
When is the prosecutor up for election? That story makes me sick. My thoughts and prayers to the family of the deceased. Be careful out there everyone!
Normally, I’d agree…but she has (4) tix in the past 17 months (blowing a stop sign, speeding). She’s 19.
The prosecutor won by a landslide based upon a child abuse case (from the quick research I did), so certainly “pro-child”. Thus, perhaps didn’t prosecute to the full extent of the law because of “protecting a child’s life”. Then again…I’ve been wrong before.
I’m firmly against banning cell phone usuage in cars, but firmly FOR a law which provides increased punishment for being a dumbass in the car (coffee, french fries, make-up, cell phones, headphones, etc). I probably support a ear-piece/speakerphone law though…
I honestly don’t know if you can fault the prosecutor. I don’t know the law in Illinois, but from the comments in the article, it appears that the only possible charge might involve reckless driving.
Reckless driving involves a much higher standard than mere negligence. That is, reckless driving involves a “willful and wanton disregard” for the safety of others on the road.
I think a good example of reckless driving would be drag-racing. Clearly in that situation, you are wilfully driving in such a manner that disregards the safety of others.
Does downloading a ring tone when you drive make you reckless? Or merely negligent? What about talking on the cell phone? Changing radio stations? Should it make you a criminal?
The prosecutor has an ethical duty to bring only those charges that she reasonably believes she can prove beyond a reasonable doubt. Under these circumstances, without standing in her shoes, I’m not going to judge her choice. Rather, the blame lies with the inadequacy of the law to address such a horrible situation.
By way of disclaimer, I was once a young prosecutor faced with a similar dilemma. I prosecuted a young woman who drove at excessive speed with 7 passengers in her compact car. The passengers weren’t wearing seat belts, and sitting on each other’s laps. The driver lost control of the vehicle and one of the passengers who was sitting on a lap was hurled forward, struck her head on the windshield and ended up being horribly scarred. She also lost one of her eyes.
This was in a different state, but I ended up charging her under a “reckless” type statute because I felt the situation, under all the circumstances (only a few of which I’ve listed here) met the “willful and wanton” standard. But it was a close call. So close, in fact, that the judge presiding over the case ultimately disagreed and held that her actions were merely negligent.
Another example of our so called legal system at its finest … what a joke and travesty. She ought to be spending at least 10 years for manslaughter … instead shes back out contributing nothing to society beyond her ring tones. It would be real justice if her next victim is the judge or the DA … hope she likes her current ring tone.
Dave