Random Indians Information
April 2, 2009The Best AAA Club in the Business?
April 2, 2009When it comes to legal issues in the NFL, few sites out there explain things better than Mike Florio. Sure, he may be wrong on the ocassional tip (a la Randy Lerner selling the team in 2007), but there is no doubt that many of his sources prove to be very credible.
Couple this with a solid legal background, and Browns fans get treated with a little more information on the Donte Stallworth situation. It turns out that resources could slant things in Stallworth’s relative favor.
The DUI laws impose strict liability on the driver. Even if the driver is not actually impaired, he’s deemed to be intoxicated as a matter of law if his blood alcohol concentration exceeds the legal limit.
For DUI manslaughter in Florida, there’s no strict liability. The prosecution must prove — beyond a reasonable doubt — that the driver caused or contributed to the causation of the collison.
The key, as it always is in criminal cases, is reasonable doubt.
Experts in accident reconstruction can readily testify as to the reality that, as in this case, a man jaywalking in a multiple-lane highway with a posted speed limit of 40 miles per hour might very well have been struck by Stallworth even if his BAC had been 0.0 percent.
If the expert is good — and there are plenty of them out there – he or she could to inject more than enough reasonable doubt into the question of whether Stallworth’s driving actually caused the collision.
As a result, prosecutors might decide not to spend the time and money necessary to prosecute Stallworth for DUI manslaughter.
Whether this is something that can be proven or not will come down to what happens in the court of law. From Stallworth’s personal standpoint, he would obviously have a less severe punishment if the manslaughter charges were in fact dropped. From the standpoint of the victim’s family, you can probably assume that they would prefer the exact opposite. And from a football standpoint, even a DUI would keep Stallworth away from the team for a considerable amout of time. Plus, Roger Goodell is no stranger to suspending players even if they are not found guilty of any charges. Any run-in with the legal system appears to be fair game.
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14 Comments
Here’s my beef with Stallworth. In his police statement he said he flashed his high beams several times at the guy to try and get him to get out of the way. Why didn’t he just hit his brakes and swerve?
It was 7am and its likely still fairly dark out, he was just about over the limit for legally drunk and on a multiple lane highway … chances are that it was too late before he was able to apply the breaks and even miss him via a swerve would be my guess
I believe that there isnt much room to actually swerve on the causeway. That’s just my guess.
The breaks, I’m not sure.
I think flashing his lights works against him since he obviously saw the man in advance. And no matter what happens he is done in a Browns uniform right? For curiosity sake, what did Dante write after that, “The man didn’t respond to my lights so I decided to hit him and see if that got his attention”?
As much as I disagree with drinking and driving, I don’t think Stallworth deserves 15 years in prison if this other guy reasonably made a mistake too.
Regardless, there will be no winners here.
IF Stallworth is found not guilty of DUI manslaughter, I think he should donate 1/2, or maybe a full years salary to either the victims family, or to setup a charity to help support families of victims of drunk driving.
The sad thing is that most people in Miami drive faster, with less caution, even when they are sober.
The only thing I can think of about the lights flashing is this:
-Donte saw the man attempting to cross the highway
-He flashed his lights to make sure the man saw him coming
-Donte continued in his lane not realizing that the victim had not seen his car, and Donte hit the victim as he continued to cross
If you can see him to flash your lights then you can see him to hit your brakes.
If you can see him to flash your lights then you can see him to hit your brakes.
I think what gregg is insinuating; the dude was in the median so stallworth flashed the lights, then dude stepped into road.
you’de think that him mentioning that he flashed is brights was not a good idea. He may have a better chance of getting off the hook if he didn’t see the guy who was not in a cross walk. But the lights thing seems to make him more guilty.
From what I remember of seeing the picture of the accident scene, there was k-rail on either side of the lanes, and there was no berm. I’m pretty sure there was absolutely no where to swerve.
It’s a tight two-lane highway by the looks of it on GoogleMaps. Nowhere to swerve if the guy is in middle. Stopping would be tough, too. If Swig is right about what Stallworth meant, it’s hard to fault him.
He will certainly get points for taking full responsibility at the time in terms of stopping, waiting for the cops, explaining what happened, cooperating fully, etc.
I am not defending Donte Stallworth. I get accused of always sympathizing with Browns ownership when I just play devil’s advocate.
Unless you are 100% familiar with the road and the situation, it is tough to comment. There will never be a justification for Stallworth’s blood alcohol content, but the law is always a lot more complex than what some of us want to assume is common sense and obvious.
In addition, when these things get reported, they never get all the details.
It is like that infamous story of the lady burning herself with McDonald’s coffee… People use that as a punchline in frivolous lawsuits, but the real story is of blatant negligence and arrogance by McDonald’s. Just google it.
All I am saying is that none of us have enough information to form a real opinion on whether or not (and to what extent) Stallworth is responsible for this death in the eyes of criminal law.
All we can say is that he was allegedly negligent and absolutely irresponsible for driving under the influence of anything. And of course, we can say anything we want about how awful he was for the Browns last year. 🙂
I live in south Florida. Moved here a year ago from NE Ohio. At 7am this morning on the Tamiami Trail (ie 41) in a 55 mph zone I had a guy try to cross the street. I had to lock up my breaks and get rear ended to avoid killing him. I have this happen to me at least once a week. (Minus the rear ending..) I HATE to say it but after living here a year I can see how this tragic accident could happen NOT at Donte’s fault. It scares the poop out of me. Heaven forbid I have a few drinks and go to bed at 12am wake up and get up on the road and someone decides they want to walk out on the road. Drive in FL for a month and you’ll understand. It really is a scary different world down here….