Apparently If You Make Enough Money You Can Run Over Whomever You Want
Written by Boston Biker on Nov 08From the Vail Daily
A financial manager for wealthy clients will not face felony charges for a hit-and-run because it could jeopardize his job, prosecutors said Thursday.
Martin Joel Erzinger, 52, faces two misdemeanor traffic charges stemming from a July 3 incident when he allegedly hit bicyclist Dr. Steven Milo from behind then sped away, according to court documents.
Did you catch that, he wont face charges, not because he isn’t guilty…but because it would harm his job if he got a felony charge.
What…The…Fuck…
Seriously its not like he just bumped this guy either, he seriously ran him over then drove off.
Milo, 34, is a physician living in New York City with his wife and two children, where he is still recovering from his injuries, court records show.
Milo suffered spinal cord injuries, bleeding from his brain and damage to his knee and scapula, according to court documents. Over the past six weeks he has suffered “disabling” spinal headaches and faces multiple surgeries for a herniated disc and plastic surgery to fix the scars he suffered in the accident.
“He will have lifetime pain,” Haddon wrote. “His ability to deal with the physical challenges of his profession — liver transplant surgery — has been seriously jeopardized.”
Apparently the DA’s logic goes something like this, if Erzinger gets a felony charge, he has to report that to his clients, and that would harm his business as an ultra high end investment guy, so instead we will just make him pay the money and he wont get the criminal record. Pardon me but wasn’t the fact that he ran over someone then drove off the thing he is getting punished for…isn’t getting a felony going to hurt anyone’s business? Isn’t that the point of criminal charges? Why is this guy immune? Oh yea because he is super rich and this is Vale CO we are talking about here.
If he really wanted to avoid all this trouble he could have done a couple of things. NOT run the guy over, or perhaps stay at the scene and help him out instead of driving away and then calling BMW about how he could get his mirror fixed.
This is a serious breach of the law and if you would like to do something about it you can sign a petition here, or perhaps you could give the driver an email and let him know how you fell ([email protected]), or you could give the Eagle County DA’s office a call and let them know that you don’t think being rich means you can get out of being charged with a crime (970-328-6947).
Add to Reddit. Tags: pissed, rich above the law, wtf
Posted in advocacy | 9 Comments »
9 Responses
to “Apparently If You Make Enough Money You Can Run Over Whomever You Want”
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By Amber on Nov 8, 2010 | Reply
This is awful, I’ve signed the petition and am sharing it to get additional signatures. I didn’t realize that once I was important enough I could do whatever I wanted to.
By Jazz on Nov 8, 2010 | Reply
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/11/08/martin-erzinger-morgan-stanley-hit-and-run-_n_780294.html
Front page of huffingtonpost! Facebook blast on the way!
By Lovely Bicycle! on Nov 8, 2010 | Reply
Oh my God. What a disgrace. I don’t know what else to say…
By mtalinm on Nov 8, 2010 | Reply
fry this guy
By Fenway on Nov 8, 2010 | Reply
Where’s the charge for depraved indifference to human life? This is no different than a hunter carelessly shooting someone in the woods and leaving them for dead. The guy needs to face punishment akin to a manslaughter charge if not greater.
By Chris Schaffer on Nov 9, 2010 | Reply
Just as a quick correction, the city is Vail rather than Vale.
I agree that this is a travesty to the law and to a society that we expect to abide by it. Be sure that as a Colorado resident I am calling the DAs office, writing them, and making this issue known to my local paper.
By JonT on Nov 9, 2010 | Reply
Check out the update at the bottom of the Huffington Post article referenced above: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/11/08/martin-erzinger-morgan-stanley-hit-and-run-_n_780294.html
Essentially (my summary), the prosecutor offered a plea bargain where the driver would plead guilty to the felony charge plus the two misdemeanor charges, and give a large financial settlement to the victim, and if the driver keeps his nose clean, the felony would be cleared from his record in a few years.
By Matt on Nov 9, 2010 | Reply
http://www.vaildaily.com/article/20101109/EDITS/101109849/1021&ParentProfile=1065
I think the prosecutor’s comment were mis-paraphrased.
The long and short of it is the dual misdemeanors will stay on his record forever. A previous deal that the victim had approved would have allowed the defendant to hide the conviction after 2 to 4 years.
So what happened seems like a better deal for society overall: Asshole loses license and has a record.
As opposed to: Asshole losses job, hides record, gets job again… in 5 years plows into someone else in another state and no one knows he’s a 2 time offender.
Despite my thoughts on his punishment (more!) it seems like he plead to somewhat appropriate charges:
“…Erzinger plead guilty to leaving the scene of an accident and careless driving causing serious bodily injury.”
By Ben on Nov 11, 2010 | Reply
I came to post Matt’s article ^.
While I certainly don’t know the intricacies of law, it does sound like this is ultimately a more appropriate decision.