Is this a fair sentence?

[DaCol.]

As they say, " IF you can't do the TIME, Don't do the Crime"!

That said, I can't help but believe there is more to this than just a LEO losing his life in a motorcycle chase. We had one simular in Oklahoma City, I will post what happen if they ever get to trial.  

 

[moondog]

+1...sounds like a young cops' ego got in the way of making a proper decision. It's suppose to be justice, not vengeance. Why even bother chasing two machines like that? It just added another (even) more dangerous element to the whole deal. Let the radio do it's work? No, let's take a piece of $hit poorly maintained crown victoria with 200,000 miles on it and push the unit far beyond it's limit.

 

[xzvs]

here in socal they are charging home invasion robbers with manslaughter cause the cops pursuing them hit and killed an innocent motorist. I agree the guys should be charged to the max for robbery and evading but NO way should they get a manslaughter charge.
Cops have the right to blow red lights and speed in "pursuit" . If they crash or hit someone they are however 100% at fault.
IMO if this guy has a history of speeding and evasion -- throw the book at him for that. He is already a moron for admitting it was him, but this is WAY outta line.
Granted he shoulda stopped -- as well as the Porshe driver
If the guy on the bike shot out his tire -- well ok -- otherwise I call BS

 

[TIMMYDUCK]

Some of you guys should read the article.
Car = Pursuit Chevy Camaro.
Cop = 20 year NYC cop retired.
4 year FHP veteran.
Does his 20 gets full pension from NY.
Moves to Fla to earn more in good weather.

 

[moondog]

oops....

 

[Mr Brown]

Some of you guys should read the article.
Car = Pursuit Chevy Camaro.
Cop = 20 year NYC cop retired.
4 year FHP veteran.
Does his 20 gets full pension from NY.
Moves to Fla to earn more in good weather.

You forgot the FHP no chase policy. If we're gonna look at the details, let's look at all of them. The biker screwed up, the cop screwed up, and the judge is an idiot.

 

[AzBusaFan]

I believe 30yrs is over the top..

I also believe he should have gotten some time out of it..   I remember reading somewhere that he turned back to see if the cop was pulling out..  from an eyewitness... if thats true.. he knew the cop was chasing...  at that point he should have stopped.. nobody would be dead...  and his biggest problem would be a jacked up insurance rate.. if he even had any to begin with.

in closing... 30 yrs is excessive... but 5yrs... yes...  I would have no pity for him at that level...

I was in a high speed pursuit once in my wild and crazy days. In the police report the cop said "the suspect turned his head and looked at me several times, so he knew he was being pursued." That's just a crap standard line they give. WTF do they think rear view mirrors are for. My neck barely turns 90 degrees each way let alone far enough to see behind me.

30 years in this case is just another example of the justice system gone awry. Meanwhile child-abusing priests get a slap on the wrists. Is there anything more heinous and premeditated than that?

 

[AzBusaFan]

here in socal they are charging home invasion robbers with manslaughter cause the cops pursuing them hit and killed an innocent motorist. I agree the guys should be charged to the max for robbery and evading but NO way should they get a manslaughter charge.
Cops have the right to blow red lights and speed in "pursuit" . If they crash or hit someone they are however 100% at fault.
IMO if this guy has a history of speeding and evasion -- throw the book at him for that. He is already a moron for admitting it was him, but this is WAY outta line.
Granted he shoulda stopped -- as well as the Porshe driver
If the guy on the bike shot out his tire -- well ok -- otherwise I call BS

Home invasions are a terrible crime and the perpetrators should be strung up anyways.

 

[eynlai]

There is something wrong in this world when something like this is even possible.

Imagine: You're riding along one day, and decide to have a little fun and open it up for a bit. You stop at a nearby gas station to use the can and to grab a RedBull. When you step out, you're being arrested for "causing" the death of a trooper/CHP because his/her tire blew out while he/she was trying to pursue you to give you a ticket for speeding.... But you didn't even know that you were being pursued.

Yes, and it can happen. This incident just proved it. What kind of twisted law is that???

I just emailed the reporter that wrote that article voicing what I think. I also email her a link to this thread while asking her for the judge's email.

Donald Williams (the biker that got 30 yr) perhaps should get his lincense suspended, fined, maybe even get 6 months in jail for wreakless riding and evading arrest... But 30 years just to be the scapegoat over this sad incident is nowhere near fair.

What the hell kind of justice is this???

What about the guy in the Porches? What about the tire manufacturer of the car that the trooper was driving? What about the maintanance crew that put on the tire back at the station? Shouldn't they all be responsible as well?

By the way, below is what I emailed the reporter:

--------------------Start----------------------------------------
I could not believe it when I read it. 30 years??!! I feel for the trooper’s family, but the fact of the matter is that the tire on the car the trooper was driving blew out. From what I read, Williams didn’t run him off the road. And out of experience, Williams might not even honestly know he was being pursued.

Guilty of speeding? Yes. Guilty of wreakless driving? Perhaps. May even be guilty of evading arrest. But since blame is being handing out like hotcakes, what about the driver of the Porches? Why his he/she not sort after? What about the tire manufacturer? It was primarily a tire blow out that caused the accident. Trooper Haywood could easily have been driving at 85mph and that wouldn’t have stopped the tire from blowing out.

Please see the link to the reactions on the internet regarding this unfair sentencing. And what is this judge’s email address? I’m sure more than a few people throughout the nation would like to email him to tell him what we all think of his sense of justice.



eddie

----------------------End----------------------------------------

Oh, and her email address is: kreed@orlandosentinel.com

 

[cosmo]

The Orlando Sentinel is famous (infamous?) for protecting the bumbling police/prosecutor in the Jessica Lunsford case. Two of the perpetrators were never charged for murdering a 9 year old girl even though a dozen witnesses heard them BRAG about it. Good luck with the journalist.



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[Devious]

Way to harsh. As I have said before, Cops apply for and compete for the job. So they are no different or better than anyone else. And therefore should get no extra consideration in almost any case. It's a terrible thing that there was a death, but he chose to push it to the limit and beyond. The guys that were racing should not have been charged for any more than evading and reckless, and maybe for speeding. I'm really sorry for for the cop and his family but again, he chose to pursue at high speed. And the cause of the accident had nothing to do with the other guys. It could have happened at anytime. If he had been, on a call and speeding to the scene of an accident, and blew the tire, could he ( the Prosecutor ) charge the people at the scene of the accident where he was going with contributing to his death. No. Sh*t happens. And sometimes it a sad, bad thing. But no one is to blame.


David

 

[xzvs]

here in socal they are charging home invasion robbers with manslaughter cause the cops pursuing them hit and killed an innocent motorist. I agree the guys should be charged to the max for robbery and evading but NO way should they get a manslaughter charge.
Cops have the right to blow red lights and speed in "pursuit" . If they crash or hit someone they are however 100% at fault.
IMO if this guy has a history of speeding and evasion -- throw the book at him for that. He is already a moron for admitting it was him, but this is WAY outta line.
Granted he shoulda stopped -- as well as the Porshe driver
If the guy on the bike shot out his tire -- well ok -- otherwise I call BS

Home invasions are a terrible crime and the perpetrators should be strung up anyways.

agreed -- string em up - but the cops are responsible for the motorist's death
BTW they were tried and found guilty in the motorists death but it was overturned

 

[Charlesbusa]

Unbelievable!!!!

The motorcyclists and the porshe didn't cause the death of the officer.
3 things caused his death.
1)His choice to pursue when police policy is not to pursue.
2)His tire blew out.
3)He lost control of his vehicle.

2 of the 3 are the cops fault.

The other one is harder to say, tire manufacturer or the police car shop.

The rider is a complete idiot for admitting to it, but he's not the cause of the officer's death!!

Charge him for speeding, evading, failing to yeild.


I feel for the cop's family, but those charges are ridiculous.

Can't understand how of jury of our peers pronounced the rider guilty or how the judge could sentence him for 30yrs.

Doesn't this guy have a lawyer.



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[Charlesbusa]

Lets say when the cop's tire blew and he hit the car that the other car was the one that hit a tree and the driver died.

The rider never would have been charged with manslaughter and all the other crap if the dead person wasn't a cop!

 

[eynlai]

Lets say when the cop's tire blew and he hit the car that the other car was the one that hit a tree and the driver died.

The rider never would have been charged with manslaughter and all the other crap if the dead person wasn't a cop!

dude.... Didn't you know that a cop's life is worth a lot more than the average-Joe, your's and mine put together?

Wake up!

Yes, the biker, Donald Williams, should've NEVER admitted anything! I believe the bike and the Porche was going too fast for the cop to catch the license plate and radio it in. In a helmet, at least a riding jacket and decent high speed, we all more or less look a like. I don't believe his first mistake was to race that day. We've all done that at one time or another.

His first mistake was admitting to it. His second mistake was not hiring a paid lawyer, but instead took that crappy Public Defender that was out to string his ass out to dry as well. Any half-ass decent private lawyer would've got all charges dismissed by simply calling for a good old line up with helmet and riding gear on. It would be hard for whatever witnesses there was to pick out Williams. Let's put his bike in a line up too! As long as they're all sportbikes, most cagers can't tell the difference between a busa and a R1/R6! Sad to say, but it sounded like Williams got reamed by his Public Defender. Even a drunk-ass private lawyer could've saved him from 30 years simply by showing to court drunk or hung over and argue that Williams is not responsible because there was no contact, no intent of contact, and that it was the defective tire blowing out that caused the accident.

Williams should've begged and borrowed the $$$ to get a private lawyer. No lawyer that half-ass cared about helping him would've advised him to take the 30 years. More than likely a decent lawyer wouldn't have allowed him to take that plead bargain. 30 years, 60 years, at that point what's the difference?

 

[BusaCruise]

so...who is sueing the tire manufacturer?

it's very sad that fault can be found and blame laid upon individuals for freak accidents.
sure a series of choices went into placing each person in their role but to arrive at those sort of charges? jeesh!

so if I fart in a bathroom and the next guy goes to light up a cigar...the bathroom explodes, he dies and the building burns down...am I guilty of Manslaughter and Arson?
by the logic of THAT judge's finding I am.

 

[BusaCruise]

there is a reason that most (in FL) local departments have a "no chase" policy, which dictates circumstances and conditions for a pursuit of speeders or other traffic law violators.
I guess it's what most of them live for though cause as FHP units, they are little more than glorified Meter Maids.

 

[CMEPASU]

Alot of the responses I've seen here are comparing apples to bananas. One asked if someone involved in an accident would be charged if the cop blew out a tire enroute and crashed. Keyword there being "accident." Bottom line is that if Williams wasn't racing the Porsche to begin with, then none of this happened.

What you would find out if you looked further into this than what the paper reported is that Williams is one of those Busa riders that make us all look bad. He has a long string of violations, running on multiple occasions etc. This time he had to pay the piper. Is 30 years excessive? Maybe, but that's up to the judge/appeals process, etc.
Even if the cop violated department policy by initiating a pursuit, that would have been an administrative matter to be dealt with after the fact. Here's a quick scenario to offer a different point of view. There was a video posted here yesterday or the day before that showed a moron (might have been ghostrider) that was hauling arse down what looked like a two lane interstate weaving in and out of traffic, driving on the shoulder, splitting lanes and wheelieing between motorhomes etc. Suppose that this rider spooked one of the cagers by closing in at a high rate of speed, the cager changes lanes to get out of the biker's way, crashes into your mother who is also innocently driving along, and she is killed. It's too late at that point to debate whether or not the bike should've been pursued.
There are too many variables here to monday-morning quarterback the issue. Unfortunately, a law enforcement officer is dead and another person is losing years of their life to the penal system.

The biggest issue here is that too many people fail to accept responsibility for their actions. "Let's blame the cop for chasing, let's blame the tire maker, let's blame the service crew that installed the tire." I'm no saint, I've run from the police on several occasions in my younger years and was never caught. However looking back on it now, I see what a dumbass I was. I got very lucky that no one, especially the pursuing officers or innocent motorists, was hurt. I hit triple digits from time to time on the Busa even now, but I do so with a willingness to accept the consequences of my actions. I could be stopped and pay a huge fine for speeding, I could have my bike impounded, I might even have an equipment failure and have a serious accident. That's the price of doing business in our love of speed, adrenaline, and motorcycling. If you're not willing to accept the consequences associated with your actions, then either drive the speed limit and obey all traffic laws, or get a different hobby.

RIP Trooper Haywood

 

[jdevarie]

After reading all of the links, my opinion is that the rider was no saint either. I also agree with some other posters in the fact that people like him make us motorcyclysts the bad guys on the streets.
He got 30 years and in my opinion it was due to a bad choice of a lawyer (could have been a state appointed one) but he was not getting out of it easily, specially with a LEO death involved. Wether or not the cop should have gone in pursuit due to the dept. ordinances is out of the question. That is what cops do, go after bad people or people breaking the law. Williams was breaking the law and got caught.
I feel sorry for both of them, two lives lost. Like a previous poster said:
"The reasons for runnning are running out;
The reasons for stopping are adding up" (or something like that)

Peace!.

 

[mofuggahere]

The bottom line here is the guys defense attorney should have his license revoked! Without the offender speaking up himself about speeding earlier that day, the prosecution had NOTHING even connecting this guy to the scene.
Now i am not sticking up for our fellow busa owner because if any of you know Interstate 4 thru Orlando towards Daytona Beach, you know it just ain't the place to even think about street racing.
But come on Guilty for the officer's death

That is just insanity

Another factor that i haven't seen here(if i missed it above, i am sorry) The officer was operating one of the special issue camaros(1 of like less than 100 in the state) With that power at his disposal i think HE made the Biggest mistake in trying to chase the other 2. Truly a tragedy that a loved officer dies, but in my opinion another tragedy if in the U.S someone is found guilty for manslaughter when the actions that caused the death were decided on and carried out by someone else