Drunk Driver get 15 years to life
 

Joseph Lynchard, a repeat drunk driver, just pled guilty to 2nd degree Homicide, for the death of Katherine Black, cyclist. Katherine had been standsing with her bike, 5 feet off the road, when Lynchard hit her. he had been drinking at his brothers' bar. His brother lost his liquor permit months ago. Lynchard has been sitting in jail for 2 years since the "accident". I personally saw Lynchard at a court hearing last year when I showed up with other members of the Sonoma County Bicycle Coalition to silently watch the proceedings. At his age and apparent health I expect he will die in jail.

I will post any useful updates as they happen

Is his brother liable too, since he was serving alcohol after losing his permit?

Looks like no criminal charges are going to stick against the brother, Eddie Lynchard; he already beat a charge of negligent service of alcohol. Now the cyclist's family is trying to hold the driver's brother and wife responsible for civil damages. His wife insured the truck in her own name while knowing that her husband (who couldn't get insurance due to past DUI convictions) would be driving it, and also transferred all her husband's assets into her own name to try to protect them from civil suits. Eddie ordered his employees to keep serving his brother when they wanted to cut him off, and had also bought his brother the truck in the first place, after his multiple past DUIs.

Hella nice folks. I hope the civil suit leaves 'em all licking the insides of old cat food cans to survive.

I completely agree. Sounds like the whole family needs a kick in the a$$.

I see I was not clear on that. The brother still had the permit at the time. The servers said they were worried about losing their jobs if they didn't serve the drunk. The boozer had multiple convictions.

That's pretty f***ed up. However, it doesn't seem to have anything to do with cycling. Based on the description of the collision, I would call the woman a "bystander" rather than a "cyclist". In fact, if the same drunk driver had hit the same woman while was cycling on the road, I wouldn't be surprised if he received a lighter sentence.

True, she apparently was off the bike at the time. No way to tell she is dead and he was way drunk. She had left the Santa Rosa Area and was riding back to Lake County, a rather hard ride. May have stopped for a rest. One thing that p%^&*d people off is that his tire tracks showed that he went 5 feet off the road to hit her. As far as Advocacy at every public hearing there was a group of cyclists in the audience, silently watching the proceedings. We all wore little day-glow bike pins. The Assistant DA prosecuting the case said our constant presence helped him. "No sweeping things under the rug now."

This reminds me of Michele Young's murder[1] of CeCe Krone in Marin County. I believe the silent courtroom observer tactic helped stretch Ms. Young's too-short sentence; thanks for being involved in this case.

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1) I am not alone in equating vehicular manslaughter while inebriated or stoned with murder.

Do you have any links to newspaper sites on this story?

Alcohol should not be an excuse, and you should be just as responsible for your actions, drunk as when your stone cold sober. The reason I believe this, is that the drinking of alcohol is a voluntary action, if you can not control your actions, under it's influence, then it's simple, don't drink alcohol.

Penalties for drunk driving, even without affecting someone else, are nowhere near harsh enough, a 5 year driving ban, followed by having your licence cancelled, should be the bottom end of the scale. Of course after your licence is cancelled, you can apply for a learners permit, to start the process over. If you are caught driving during the ban, it's an automatic 2 years in prison, and the ban starts all over when you get out.

You start charging drunk drivers who kill someone with murder, and the ones that don't, with long term bans, and you will see fewer drunks on the road, maybe.

Around here, (Ontario, Canada) the police have a program called RIDE (Reduce Impaired Driving Everywhere), from the middle of November, until early January, they will pick a street, block it off to a single lane, and check every car going through. This year is the 30th anniversary of the program, and they still lay thousands of 12 hour suspensions (.050 - .079), and hundreds of DUI charges (.080 and over) every year, makes one wonder, why are people that stupid.

I tried searching the local PRESS DEMOCRAT newspaper for stories but their system is S-l-o-w and I got a faster listing of some of their stories by googling JOSEPH LYNCHARD . Try that. Did find that relatives of the deceased Kathryn Black were going after his brother Eddie and another for damages. The top listing on SFGate.com, a San Francisco Chronical site lists several bike/drunk fatalities, all in places I ride.

What is the law about intoxicated people being served alcohol at a bar? Especially if it is very clear the person is drunk? In Iowa it is against the law to serve or sell alcohol if a person is drunk. If it happens & the person is in an drunk driving related accident & there are injuries or deaths the place that served or sold the alcohol can be held liable.

Same law here. The deciding factor would be if they are all out of work with no money, and they had lapsed their insurance before it happened. Not much point in paying a lawyer to collect nothing.