Looking Out My Back Door

DWI Horror Resolved? Hardly.

About a year and a half ago, there was a horrific drunken driving accident on Long Island. A family returning home from a relative's wedding in a limosine was slammed into by a guy DRIVING THE WRONG WAY on the Meadowbrook Parkway. The limo driver was killed, as was a seven year old child, who had earlier that day served as a flower girl at the wedding. The child was decapitated. Her mother held her severed head in her lap.

Amazingly, the perpetrator (I will not call him by name), who had at least 14 drinks before choosing to get behind the wheel of his pickup, pleaded not guilty, then was astonished when the prosecutors pushed for a murder charge (two, actually). Depraved indifference to human life, they called it, and I absolutely agree. He was eventually convicted on the murder charges, and was sentenced yesterday.

The judge could have given the maximum 25 years to life punishment, which seemed lenient after hearing victim impact statements from the two anguished families. Instead, although he agreed that the defendant "showed pure, blatant, callious and wanton disregard" for life, he imposed a sentence of 18 to life.

I don't know when this perp will be eligible for parole, but I do know that there are two families serving life without parole -- but plenty of agony -- because of the deaths of Stanley Rabinowitz and Katie Flynn. Here's one thing I know for certain: the name of the judge who imposed this joke of a sentence. He is Acting Nassau County Supreme Court Justice Alan Honorof. Even his surname is a joke.

This will not give them closure, but I fervently hope that the Flynn and Rabinowitz families sue the bar that served those drinks to the perp for punitive damages. Put them out of business. Teach them a lesson. And may they every day see the faces of the victims of a crime they aided and abetted.

For the Flynn and Rabinowitz families, I wish strength and peace, and I hope it comes sooner rather than later.

posted by Hopster @ 9:17 AM