b******i
发帖数: 1183 | 1 HAYWARD -- The felony conviction for an attorney who killed a Chinese
tourist in a hit-and-run crash in 2011 was reduced to a misdemeanor by an
Alameda County judge on Friday over "strenuous objection" by prosecutors,
according to the district attorney's office.
Hayward Judge Michael Gaffey also changed the terms of the sentence he
handed down to Spencer Freeman Smith just two weeks ago, much to the chagrin
of an American friend of the man Smith killed.
"Obviously, I am not a judge or a lawyer but, for me, using common sense, it
's an outrageous decision," said Dr. Arnold Owens of Oakland. "Everything
has gone so much in favor of the defendant, it seems like some shenanigans
are going on."
Smith's attorney Dionne Choyce denied that his client received special
privileges.
"This is not a case about special treatment, the case is about a tragic
accident," Choyce wrote in an email.
Smith, 36, was living in San Ramon working as a San Francisco labor attorney
on March 12, 2012 when, after a night of drinking with a paralegal from his
firm, he fatally struck 57-year-old Chinese financial adviser Bo Hu on
Dougherty Road in Dublin, prosecutors say. Hu was in the country for his
fiancee's relative's graduation and was killed while he was walking a
bicycle.
Smith did not stop or even brake at the scene and was apprehended by Dublin
police investigators after they matched broken vehicle parts left at the
scene to his brand new Mercedes-Benz sedan. Choyce said in September that
the married father of two had to move his family to Orange County after Hu's
death because Smith had been receiving death threats.
A trial was pending in November 2014 when he changed his plea to no contest
to charges of felony hit-and-run and misdemeanor vehicular manslaughter.
Judge Kevin Murphy was supposed to have sentenced him in March, but Murphy
recused himself because he personally knew several of the people who wrote
letters to the court on Smith's behalf. Though never stated on the court's
record, it is known around the Hayward courthouse that Smith's mother worked
for the Alameda County Superior Court for decades.
Smith then withdrew his plea and was scheduled for trial again when he once
again pleaded no contest before Judge Gaffey. Gaffey had discretion to
sentence Smith to more than three years in prison. But after citing Smith's
lack of criminal history and the factors that would have contributed Smith
to not being able to see Hu on the side of the road, like Smith's prosthetic
right eye, Gaffey sentenced Smith on Sept. 25 to five years felony
probation and one year in jail.
Gaffey said then that Smith could apply to serve the jail time at home via
electronic monitoring after serving 30 days in custody. He first ordered
Smith be remanded into jail custody that day, Sept. 25, but then gave Smith
a weeklong reprieve to surrender himself after Smith announced that his wife
's current pregnancy is wrought with complications and he was the only
person available to take her to an important doctor's appointment.
On Friday, Smith was still out of custody. After reducing Smith's felony
conviction and considering a doctor's note about the wife's pregnancy,
Gaffey said Smith could serve his 30 days in jail after 11 months of
electronic month monitoring, DA's office spokeswoman Teresa Drenick said.
Gaffey also ordered that Smith not drink alcohol and wear an alcohol monitor
during the term. Now, Smith is on misdemeanor instead of felony probation.
Choyce alleged that Hu was under the influence when he was walking his bike.
"He should not have been there. Anyone driving down that dark roadway could
have hit Mr. Hu; it just happened to be Mr. Smith," he said. "The judge
recognized that this was a tragic accident and Mr. Smith was in a more
vulnerable situation because he is blind in his right eye."
Owens said there has been a lot of victim blaming in this case that he
called irrelevant.
He said he doesn't know what he is going to tell Hu's family, who he has
been assuring for years about that the American justice system.
"I'm embarrassed, as an American, to talk to them," Owens said. "After
watching how this case went, I have no faith whatsoever that he will ever
spend one day in jail."
Contact Malaika Fraley at 925-234-1684. Follow her at Twitter.com/
malaikafraley. | b******i
发帖数: 1183 | 2 Spencer Freeman Smith
Remember this name
remember this face
chagrin
it
【在 b******i 的大作中提到】
: HAYWARD -- The felony conviction for an attorney who killed a Chinese
: tourist in a hit-and-run crash in 2011 was reduced to a misdemeanor by an
: Alameda County judge on Friday over "strenuous objection" by prosecutors,
: according to the district attorney's office.
: Hayward Judge Michael Gaffey also changed the terms of the sentence he
: handed down to Spencer Freeman Smith just two weeks ago, much to the chagrin
: of an American friend of the man Smith killed.
: "Obviously, I am not a judge or a lawyer but, for me, using common sense, it
: 's an outrageous decision," said Dr. Arnold Owens of Oakland. "Everything
: has gone so much in favor of the defendant, it seems like some shenanigans
| b******i
发帖数: 1183 | | b******i
发帖数: 1183 | 4 Choyce said in September that
the married father of two had to move his family to Orange County after Hu's
death because Smith had been receiving death threats. | b******i
发帖数: 1183 | 5 Smith's mother worked
for the Alameda County Superior Court for decades. |
|
