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This was the accident where a drunk crashed and the responding cop arrived minutes later and was killed by a different car when he walked onto the LIE. I think that's a bad precedent to make the drunk liable for the cop's death by another driver in a separate crash. In theory if a cop pulls you over for speeding and gets killed by another car, some aggressive DA might charge you with the cop's death on the theory that your actions put the cop at risk.
Meanwhile, another drunk driver who crashed and killed her passenger got less than two years. Seems like a different standard of punishment was applied.
Ulmer was convicted of a top count of PL 125.15-1, a C Felony. One person died.
Ryan was convicted of PL 125.14-5, a B Felony. One person died and one person sustained a serious physical injury.
B and C felonies have different sentencing guidelines, hence different sentences.
Also, the mother of the victim in the Ulmer crash asked the judge for leniency. The surviving family of the victim in the Ryan case asked for the max.
It seems that you either do not understand or did not take the time to familiarize yourself with the cases and the offenses involved.
I was trying to generate discussion based on what was reported in the newspaper stories which did not mention top counts of PL 125.15-1 and PL 125.14-5. Your mentioning of those legal terms as if they are commonly known and understood terms indicates your desire to be antagonistic rather than contribute to the discussion. If you get your jollies by being an internet jerk, so be it.
Ulmer was convicted of a top count of PL 125.15-1, a C Felony. One person died.
Ryan was convicted of PL 125.14-5, a B Felony. One person died and one person sustained a serious physical injury.
B and C felonies have different sentencing guidelines, hence different sentences.
Also, the mother of the victim in the Ulmer crash asked the judge for leniency. The surviving family of the victim in the Ryan case asked for the max.
It seems that you either do not understand or did not take the time to familiarize yourself with the cases and the offenses involved.
Excellent explanation.
In the Ulmer crash FYI , the DWI driver and the passenger victims were best friends which might account for the leniency request (not at all unusual when the victim is a close friend or a family member).
OP is probably right. Cite all the legal mumbo jumbo you like but this is absolutely going to be appealed by some go-getter lawyer. Whether it changes the outcome who knows, but it's difficult to fathom the sentence in light of the convoluted sequence of events. Just to play devil's advocate for a moment, the officer got hit walking across 3 lanes of highway. Seems a good lawyer could make some hay out of that. The officer was NOT hit by the driver. That automatically raises concerns about a manslaughter sentence. There was some issue about the lights from the car in the original accident impacting everyone's vision. I'm perplexed that there is zero responsibility being levied at the Escalade driver who actually killed the cop. Maybe slowing down or even stopping at an accident scene would have been prudent, rather than swerving around stopped vehicles (but then why would they expect a police officer crossing the highway on foot in the dark)? I really wonder how competent the defense lawyer was. It's a sad situation and this kid is at fault in many ways, but this will be appealed. You kill a cop on Long Island, someone is getting the book thrown at them. If it sticks, that's another story.
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