In Saint Paul, We Are All Ham Sandwiches

It’s not often that I praise the Twin Cities’ mainstream media.  Especially the two dailies, whom I would not trust to cover Republican electoral campaigns fairly and honestly (as institutions, not necessarily in terms of each and every reporter) if offered them a billion dollars.

But when they’re right – when they actual do the gumshoe reporting on issues that their institutional biases allow them to be fair and honest about – sometimes they truly do God’s work.

As in the Koua Fong Lee case, as recapped by columnist Ruben Rosario (via  Bob Johnson’s ADemocracy).

Rosario:

Justice prevails, no thanks to ineffective defense counsel and obstinate county prosecutors.

A defense attorney’s mission is to advocate as best he or she can for the client. A prosecutor’s ultimate mission is to seek justice. Both failed miserably in this sad case.

Lee was the driver of a Toyota involved in a horrendous crash in the summer of 2006, in Saint Paul.  I remember driving by the crash scene, on Snelling at I94, as I ran errands that evening; it was one of the worst accident scenes I’ve ever seen.

In hindsight, the first big mistake was to prosecute this case as a felony…there was no evidence at all that this man, returning from church services with his pregnant wife and their 4-year-old daughter, intended to crash at high speed into another vehicle. He was not drunk or high or text-messaging or dozing off or otherwise distracted.

Yet, for argument’s sake, even if we grant that he wrongly stepped on the accelerator pedal instead of the brake, it is still not a felony. No matter. He was charged with multiple counts of criminal vehicular homicide, gross negligence. He was prosecuted and convicted as a criminal and sentenced to an eight-year state prison term.

The problem, as Rosario – recapping a story that was covered in Pulitzer-worthy depth (and by that I mean Pulitzers as they once were, rather than as they are today) by PiPress reporter Jackie Gurnon – was the lawyers; Lee’s “defense” attorney…:

That conviction was secured in no small part with the head-scratching support of a defense lawyer who contradicted his client’s testimony that he stepped and kept his foot on the brake right through the fatal impact.

In fact, this lawyer embraced a key prosecution witness’s gas-pedal theory during closing arguments and never aggressively pursued alternative theories that may have supported what his client was saying about what happened. Who needs prosecutors with a lawyer like that?

…and, most chillingly, the Ramsey County Attorney’s office; even as reports of unintended uncontrollable accellerations in Toyotas multiplied:

…Gaertner and her office not only opposed a new trial, but also brought in “experts” who pooh-poohed new findings that seemed quite obvious. One of the most glaring prosecutorial missteps in all of this was pushing the theory that Lee did not step on the brake because there was a lack of long skid marks at the accident scene.

Of course, the new evidence underlined that Lee’s car had anti-lock brakes, which don’t leave skid marks when applied.

That’s something that should have easily been checked, regardless of the subsequent Toyota recall. But neither the defense nor the prosecution bothered to check this most momentous fact during the trial.

Read the whole thing – and no, I haven’t excerpted anywhere near the whole fascinating story.

It’s good to know there are still reporters that can still do some good in this world.

It’s chilling to realize that Susan Gaertner – the Ramco attorney – has higher political aspirations.

10 thoughts on “In Saint Paul, We Are All Ham Sandwiches

  1. This would explain why permit holders would have been even more nervous in the case of the permit holder who killed his assailant in Minneapolis recently, to put it mildly. (as skeptical as we were of the Minnneapolis police/DA, of course, we would be more skeptical in Pig’s Eye)

    Glad that he finally got justice….if years too late.

  2. Playing the devil’s advocate, if I may – and let me note, for the record, I think this poor man got a raw deal – I seem to recall reading something here on SitD that made the claim that most of the Toyata accidents being blamed on recall related defects were driver error, not equipment malfunction.

    So, while I’m so happy that this worked out with justice being done belatedly – which is less than what anyone would prefer, obviously, but still an improvement over never – this seems a bit contradictory, in view of that earlier post.

  3. Susan Gaertner also had a hand, if not outright illegally, then certainly questionable in terms of conflict of interests, in Jesse “The Feather Boa” Ventura winning the governors’ race.

    Who knew that people with political inclinations lack a sense of scruples? Shocked, Shocked, I tell you!

  4. “this seems a bit contradictory,”

    Not at all.

    I still think he was standing on the gas by mistake, but that shouldn’t get prosecuted as a felony. He should have never done jail time. Nothing in the evidence other than anecdotal testimony pointed towards a sudden acceleration problem with the Toyota. In fact, there was evidence that the brakes were not engaged (other than the absence of skid marks).

  5. Wow, on True North it says that Nancy LaRoche composed this piece. I declare shenanigans!

    Well, yeah Bill. Nancy is, if memory serves, a declared candidate for MOB Mayor. That means she’ll inevitably be writing for Mitch, but not very much.

  6. Master;

    I have the same thoughts, to a point. The central issue was with electronically controlled accelerators. His Toyota has a mechanical (connected by a steel cable) gas pedal. The electronic controllers on cars these days are in essence, a smaller version of the black box on aircraft. More info is coming out that in many of these cases, the brakes were never applied. In all likelihood, either he wasn’t hitting the brakes as he thought or he was going too fast off the exit ramp. The whole controversy over Toyota gas pedals provides a convenient excuse, yet there in contradictory evidence on many of those claims.

    As I have stated before, I spend about 60% of my work week and severla hours every other weekend on the metro highways. Now, I know that I’m going to take flak here for this, but, it has been my observation that oriental drivers, especially younger ones, generally drive very fast. It doesn’t seem to matter how many people are in the car, either, as I have seen cars with families in them doing the same thing.

    Was Lee guilty of this? We can only speculate, but expecting the brakes to stop your car from freeway speeds at the last minute, seems to be at least a plausible theory in this case.

    Should he have been charged with a felony for a fatal accident in which he failed to control the speed of his car? There certainly are grounds to do so.

    This is similar to the Audi 5000 debacle from the mid 80’s. Ultimately, Audi was exhonerated when people finally admitted that they made a mistake, including the woman that started it all. Let’s add the Firestone tires excuses, too. It just infuriates me that the poster picture that the lame stream media used continuously to illustrate how bad those tires were, was a Ford Explorer that was rolled over, with a close up of a BALD Firestone tire. Now, I know that Firestone did have some issues, but I would venture to state that the majority of those tire failures were due to owner error.

    All I know is that I’ve already had to deal with a similar case while serving on the Hennepin County Grand Jury, so I’m glad that I didn’t have to do so again. It is indeed a tough call!

  7. bosshoss429,

    You made a good point. Let me re-state my assertion.

    If the sole cause of the accident was that Lee mistakenly applied the wrong pedal, then he shouldn’t have been charge with a felony. If we was driving recklessly prior to making that mistake, then that’s a different story.

    I didn’t realize the old lady Audi driver recanted her story. That’s interesting. That whole thing nearly killed Audi.

  8. Master;

    Yes, it did and the 5000 was, in my opinion, one of the finest Audis ever built. The prices were so depressed on them toward the end of that episode, that I was able to purchase one at a domestic brand price. I also had several business associates that did the same thing and they, too, loved the car.

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