Drunk Driver Crashes Into Judge Who Let Him Off… For DUI
A Gaithersburg, MD man has been sentenced to 18 months in jail for drunkenly crashing his car into an elderly couple. The driver of the other car was none other than Edwin Collier, a retired judge. The same judge, in fact, who had let the drunk driver, Rene Fernandez, off with probation after his first DUI conviction in 1998.
Fernandez, who claims the day of the accident was the first drink he’s had since 2005, swerved into the oncoming lane and hit Collier and his wife head-on, causing life-altering injuries for the retired couple. They have since been forced to sell their two homes and move, after injuries to their legs prevent them from walking up stairs.
Lawyers for the Colliers are using this incident as a call-to-action for DUI reform, claiming that high-priced defense lawyers are simply too much for inexperienced prosecutors to handle, and subsequently too many people are getting off with not enough punishment.
What do you think? If judge Collier had thrown the book at Rene Fernandez the first time around, could this incident have been avoided?
[Source: Gazette]
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