JumboRider

Robert Rush not paying attention drove his vehicle into and killed Michael Katz who was cycling. Rush was uninsured and driving on a suspended license. Rush was sentenced in August of 2006. Rush received the stiff sentence of.....a suspended license.

Did I miss something? A driver who admitted to not paying attention, driving with a suspended license and uninsured kills a person and receives a sentence of a suspended license? !!!!!!

Well as you will see by following this link, Rush learned his lesson. Rush was ticketed for two "Parking Violations", violations plead down from driving with a suspended license. Yep. Tough sentencing here in the Show Me state. Now if that was some guy smoking weed he would be behind bars post haste. (I am not arguing for or against drug legalization, just showing the injustice)

John E

Thanks for the post. The guy obviously deserves some hard time in jail, because he was already driving with a suspended license.

king88uy7

It's odd being a cyclist in the US. We're constantly surrounded by negligent people with deadly weapons that hate us, and we have no legal protection.

Mr. Underbridge

So now is he on double secret probation???

This crap is a joke. I'm all for a 10-year mandatory sentence for anyone who injures someone while driving on a suspended license.

genec

Agreed. Suspending an already suspended license when the idiot has already shown he is going to violate it... and in this case, take a life... is just foolish judgement.

I am all for kicking the judge's behind on this one too.

fat biker

That judge needs to lose his next election.

Jeff, still fat

John E

Yup. This is a very strong argument for popular election, rather than appointment, of judges.

rwp

"The prosecutor's office declined to prosecute because there were no "aggravating factors". The case was taken up in municipal court where he was charged with various misdemeanors. Just yesterday at a hearing, he was given a relatively light sentence--five weekends in jail." Missouri Bicycle News, August 31, 2006.

The judge did not get to decide what this man as charged with, the prosecuter does. Apparently the prosecuter declined to press charges so the only thing the man was charged with were charges/tickets issued by the police officer who was at the scene. It appears that the judge gave him the toughest sentence he could for these misdemeaners.

The judge may have done the best job he could under the circumstances and I'm disappointed at knee-jerk response from BikeFuroms members to this article.

genec

The knee jerk responses were based on the sentence and the information at hand.

So the prosecuter and the traffic officer are in the wrong... hang them.

Whom ever determined that a suspended license should be re-suspended is an idiot... period. And 5 weekends in jail... oh please.

rwp

My God, you're still doing it! The there is NO evidence that the traffic officer did anything wrong. Will you stop condemning people based on nothing more than your sense of self rightousness. The district attorney declined to press charges. The traffic officer can't overrule him.

And by the way, the information I got was directly from the article. I didn't do any research other than read the article and the links, so to say that the opinions were based on the "information at hand" is only an excuse for the laziness of those who refused to read the whole thing.

genec

Yeah and I'll keep doing it.

This sentence is ridiculous. Take a life and get 5 weekends in jail.

I don't care who can't over rule whom... the whole thing is stupid... a driver with a history of bad driving given a slap on the wrist for killing a cyclist. Yeah like that is justice.

Blue Order

Yep. Without knowing more, we shouldn't be blaming the judge. A suspended license *may* be the toughest sentence the law allows for the offenses the guy was charged with. Or maybe the judge *was* too lenient. But we'd need to know all of the facts in order to know why the guy only got his license suspended.

Blue Order

Maybe it's the police or prosecutors. Or maybe it's the lack of appropriate laws on the books. We need more facts. The girl who killed the cyclist here in Oregon while she was driving on a suspended license got a $1000 fine, because there was no "careless driving" statute on the books, no "vehicular homicide" statute on the books. The prosecutor couldn't charge her with reckless driving, because the facts of the case didn't meet elements the prosecutor would need to prove reckless driving.