Chalupa's Content - Page 27 - organissimo forums

hard to believe hit and run story-

Chalupa replied to medjuck's topic in Miscellaneous - Non-Political

This is similar to a incident that happened a few years ago in Pennsylvania. A State Representative named Thomas Druce("a rising star in Republican politics")hit a homeless man walking along the road killing the man instantly. Instead of stopping he kept going and reported the car damage as to his insurance company as the result of hitting a pole. Anyway he wound up serving a little more than 2 years in prison. Former Pa. lawmaker wins parole - Thomas Druce served the minimum 2-year sentence for a 1999 fatal hit-and-run accident. Philadelphia Inquirer, The (PA) - Saturday, February 25, 2006 Author: Tom Infield INQUIRER STAFF WRITER Former State Rep. Thomas Druce will be paroled from prison March 13 after having served the minimum two years of a sentence for running over a homeless man in his SUV, leaving the man dead on a dark street near the state Capitol, and then covering up his involvement in the accident for months. The case roiled Pennsylvania politics, with public outcry at what seemed Druce 's callousness and with legislators decrying that it made them all look bad. Druce , 44, once an up-and-comer Republican from Bucks County, got the news of his impending release in a 1 p.m. meeting yesterday with a state parole board official inside the Laurel Highlands prison near Somerset, where he has been a 42-cents-an-hour laborer on a grounds crew that plows snow and cuts grass. He was sentenced to serve from two to four years in prison. Typically, nonviolent offenders are paroled after serving minimum sentences unless they are seen as a community hazard, which Druce was not. Druce will have to stay in contact with a parole agent for the remaining two years of his sentence. The conditions of his parole include looking for a job and taking care of his three children at home in Chalfont. "I think the guy got off light," said Timothy Shollenberger, an attorney for the family of the accident victim, Kenneth R. Cains, a 42-year-old former Marine. Druce pleaded guilty to leaving the scene of a fatal accident, tampering with evidence and insurance fraud, all classified as nonviolent crimes. A charge of vehicular homicide was dropped. State Rep. Thaddeus Kirkland (D., Delaware County), chairman of the legislative black caucus, said the parole was an example of a privileged person being "slapped on the wrist" for crimes that might have kept a poor person incarcerated longer. "Poor folk end up in jail, sometimes for the rest of their life for such a crime," Kirkland said. State law requires that a judge set a minimum and a maximum sentence. The state Department of Corrections said yesterday that 78 percent of all nonviolent offenders who completed their minimum sentence last year were granted parole. Lauren Taylor, a department spokeswoman, said judges typically expect offenders to be released after minimum jail time unless they misbehave in prison. In the Druce case, the judge and the corrections department recommended Druce 's release. That was in contrast to the recommendation of Ed Marsico, the Republican district attorney of Dauphin County who had written the Board of Probation and Parole asking it to deny parole for Druce . "The victim's family had hoped he would serve in excess of his minimum sentence," Marsico said. "He has not accepted responsibility for his actions. Ever since the day he pleaded guilty, he has been filing motions trying to avoid serving his sentence." William Costopoulos, Druce 's attorney, said Druce clearly had accepted responsibility by pleading guilty. "To keep him in jail longer because he is not publicly remorseful enough is too much for me," Costopoulos said. "I just don't know how much more we can extract from someone who has paid the penalty to the criminal justice system." Druce 's involvement in the July 1999 accident might never have been revealed if, five months later, police had not received information about it in a Christmas card from an anonymous tipster. He sought to hang onto his legislative seat until Republican leaders finally tempered the political firestorm led by Democratic legislative leaders by pressuring him into resigning before his trial. Shollenberger, who filed a civil lawsuit in the case that has been settled in secret out of court, said Druce angered Cain's brother and two sisters by appearing to fight every effort to hold him accountable. Druce at one point asked to have a period of home confinement counted as jail time, a request that Dauphin County Judge Joseph Kleinfelter called "patently ludicrous." Democratic legislative leaders, who from the start have voiced moral outrage at Druce 's conduct, kept up the pace yesterday. Rep. Bill DeWeese, Democratic floor leader in the House, called the parole an outrage. "If the down-and-out U.S. Marine had run helter-skelter over an Oxford-cloth, striped-tie, preppy legislator, that poor old salt would have been in the slammer until the cows came home," DeWeese said. Republican leaders, while condemning Druce 's actions, have been mostly quiet on the topic. One Democrat, who with Druce was first elected to the House in 1992, said yesterday there might have been too much moral piling-on by people who don't know how they would react in the crisis Druce faced on that street in Harrisburg. "No one knows how they're really going to react," he said. "I suspect a lot of people would not react as they think they might." Events in Thomas Druce Case A time line of major events since former state Rep. Thomas W. Druce 's hit-and-run in 1999. July 27, 1999: Kenneth R. Cains is struck and killed by a Jeep Cherokee while crossing a street in Harrisburg. Jan. 4, 2000: Police receive a tip that Druce had been out drinking the night of the accident and traded in his state-leased Cherokee the next day. Jan. 14, 2000: Police question Druce . Jan. 15, 2000: Druce said he was involved in the accident but that he thought he had struck a traffic sign. March 16, 2000: Druce is arraigned on charges of insurance fraud, vehicular homicide, and leaving the scene of an accident. He pleads not guilty. Sept. 11, 2000: He pleads guilty to leaving the scene of a fatal accident; tampering with evidence; and insurance fraud. Oct. 27: Druce is sentenced to two to four years in prison and is taken into custody immediately. Dec. 22, 2000: Druce was released from Laurel Highlands on $600,000 bail pending an appeal of his case. He spent the next 40 months under electronic monitoring. He was employed as a political consultant in Harrisburg and traveled extensively in the region, including vacations to the Jersey Shore. April 29, 2004: The state Supreme Court upheld Druce 's original sentence, rejecting his claim that it was too harsh. May 6, 2004: A Dauphin County judge rejected Druce 's claim that he get credit for time served under home confinement before sending him back to prison. May 18, 2004: Druce entered Laurel Highlands to complete his sentence. Feb. 24, 2006: The state parole board announced that Druce will be paroled from prison March 13.