I personally know someone who was drinking with him before the accident. He was HAMMERED. Like, not a little sloppy, but HAMMERED.
As for what should be done with him? Unfortunately, mistakes happen and it’s very unfortunate what happened… however, there needs to be some form of discretion used here in regards to what is done with him after the trial. This isn’t a premeditated crime, it was a lapse of judgement. I’m so torn, I don’t want to lose one of the best doctors in the area, but I don’t want to use the excuse “he’s a doctor” to let him off. You can’t toss a brillant mind and significant contributor to the medical profession in this area in jail.
The bottom line (and I know everyone here besides Newman or Walker have drove a lot drunker than they should have) is that if he took a different route home, the outcome would’ve been completely different. Unfortunately, the law will act in a reactive manner and instead of crucifying this guy because he hit someone and killed them drunk, they should impose stiffer penalties to those who are caught driving drunk. I know someone with 5 or 6 DWI’s. The bottom line is, if you impose stiffer penalties for those caught drinking and driving, you won’t have to find yourself in a clusterfuck when the time comes that someone actually dies as a result.
Yes you can. We don’t need a double standard based on someones level of contribution to society. Would you feel it was right if one of your family members were treated more severely than this guy if you’d committed the same crime?
Plenty of people make mistakes, just because one guy digs ditches and the other is a doctor or some other sort of professional, doesn’t mean they should be handled differently when being punished for a crime.
Unfortunately, it happens all the time. Celebrities, politicians, etc. I wasn’t implying he shouldn’t see just punishment, but I also believe he should be able to still help people. This isn’t just a general physician… this guy is a pioneer in his own field. He’s saved hundreds, if not thousands of lives (my cousins’s included). Having him rot away in jail seems like such a waste… regardless, there’s no denying that you have to pay for the crime.
He made a conscience decision to drive drunk. All doctors know the risks (more so than the general public) and all take the oath. You can’t reasonably expect him to be able to practice after this.
I know, I guess it’s more a shame and unfortunate than anything. You’d expect a person of his significance to make better decisions. Unfortunately, book smart/medical intelligence doesn’t trasfer to the streets or common sense scenarios.
Actors, musicians, athletes… I have no mercy when they mess up like this. Shit, Dante Stallworth only saw 30 days in jail for a very similar situation, thats bullshit.
I do however believe there is something to be said about a one really bad contribution to society trumping a lifetime a extremely good contributions. Lol hell, make him work and garnish the hell out of him for a lifetime. Im sure the scumbag parents wouldnt have a problem with that lol.
That really depends on the outcome of this trial. A single DWI is not grounds for revoking a medical license. It’s highly unlikely he ever practices again, but the reason you hire a legal dream team like he has it to make highly unlikely things happen.
Anyone been following the trial? A few key points I’ve seen.
The defense tried to raise doubt on the blood test by saying the tech didn’t fill the vials completely. From the sounds of the testimony this seemed to fail completely as not filling them to the top is standard procedure and there was more than enough in each vial to properly test BAC.
The defense has nothing to counter the fact that when the car hit the longboard it left a large gouge in the street and that gouge was a foot from the driving lane.
The defense tried to argue he wasn’t texting at the exact moment of the collision but the prosecution did show he received a text just before. The jury will most likely speculate that he was either reading it or responding to it at the time of the accident.
With those 3 I just don’t see how any jury could let him off. About the only part of the prosecution’s case that seems a bit suspect is the tampering with evidence charge. The fact that he wiped a little blood off the car but did nothing to destroy the rag, or the fact that he removed a piece of flesh from the grill and set it on the step a couple feet from the car does even come close to trying to cover anything up. It’s what anyone would do when they got home and started looking at the damage.
Honestly, based on the testimony I really don’t think he knew he hit a person until he got home and started looking at the car. It’s the only reasonable explanation for why his wife went back to the scene and why she went home after seeing the ambulance without taking to anyone at the scene. It also explains why it was after his wife came back and told him about the ambulance that he freaked out and went running through the neighborhood. Does any of that matter to the case? Not really. What matters is he was drunk, he hit her, and he wasn’t in his lane. Toss out all the noise about lighting, texting, the reflectiveness of clothing etc etc and he’s still guilty as can be.
The only part that really bothered me about the prosecution’s case was their call to bring class warfare into it. I know it’s all the rage right now to hate anyone who makes more than the medium income, but talking about the Dr’s $250k house, $100K car and $150 bottle of wine was nothing but a sleazy lawyer tactic to prejudice the jury. With charges this serious he should be convicted on evidence, not the fact that some working class jury has a case of the 99% mentality against a guy who can afford things they can’t.
I just want to know how in one of his statements I thought I read that he didn’t know he hit anything big or that he just ran over something; Look at the damage to the front of the car?!?!? How does one see the hood buckled as fuck in front of you and not stop to see how fucked up your car is/what you hit.
As for being judged as a doctor who saved tons of lives; In my book that goes RIGHT THE FUCK OUT THE WINDOW when he didn’t stop to see if anyone was hurt and as a doctor if he could help. He violated his own oath of medicine right there. Now if he had stopped and tried to help/etc, then I could value the “mistake”/good doctor/I-fucked-up excuse. But not continuing to drive a wrecked car home and crying that he fucked his life up after killing someone.
^ Yeah they were arguing that she didn’t fly up on the hood so he was unaware he hit something. BULLLLLSHIT. My dad ran over a duck (wasn’t texting at the time) and it sounded and felt like he had hit either a 12" pothole or a good sized rock. Feathers were everywhere. So I can’t imagine what hitting a 140lb person would sound/feel like.
The other part of the tampering charge is that he deleted something like 70+ texts from that night from his phone that the people who he sent them to have testified were about him hitting the girl.
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Also, look at how much force he hit her with from the re-contructor’s testimony:
“Senior Investigator Robert McMahon of the Amherst Police Department took the stand and testified that Dr. Corasanti’s BMW shifted four-and-a-half feet from the center of the lane on Heim Road at the time of impact with 18-year-old Alexandria Rice.”
“McMahon, who showed jurors diagrams from his accident reconstruction investigation, says Rice was thrown 167 feet and says she was vaulted over the curb in a straight line, sliding 38 feet on dry concrete.”
“McMahon also talked about three drops of wiper fluid from the vehicle’s headlights found 282 feet beyond the collision location. McMahon was asked why the fluid was not found closer to the impact site. During direct examination by prosecutor Kelley Omel, he told jurors that a hose was likely broken, and that because of gravity, it takes time for the fluid to start dripping.”
“The accident reconstruction expert also told jurors that the teenage skateboarder’s cellphone, damaged but still in one piece, was located 27 feet beyond where her body came to a final rest.”
We’ll never know what was in his head that night so it’s all speculation, but my guess is he thought he hit a deer. At least until he got home and all his experience with cutting up human flesh as a surgeon immediately clued him into what it was he was picking out of his grill.
Ask yourself this. If he knew he hit a person why does he send his wife back to the scene? It’s not like she went back and talked to people trying to find out how the person was. She went back and as soon as she saw the ambulance she turned around and went home. No, he probably started looking at the car and freaking out and she said something like, “maybe it was an animal, I’ll go look” only to see the ambulance and realize he was right. As for not stopping, put yourself in his shoes. You’re .12-.14 drunk, it’s dark, you’re a mile from home and you think you just hit a deer in a town with more police per square mile than anywhere in WNY. You’d probably choose to check it out when you got home instead of on the side of the road too.
Again though, knowing he hit her or not it doesn’t matter. What matters is she wasn’t in the road (the defense hasn’t even tried to argue that), he was drunk (they tried to cast doubt on that but failed IMHO), and she died. That’s manslaughter, just no way around it. You never know with juries and it only takes one holdout to deadlock but after reading each day’s testimony I just can’t see any reasonable person not voting to convict.
EDIT: Good point on the deleted texts RE: tampering. They made such a huge deal over the piece of flesh being picked off the car and set down 2 feet away I forgot about the deleted texts. So yeah, they’ve probably even got him on that charge.
Isn’t manslaughter only like 6 years? I mean he’ll never practice again…but still he ran this person over with a ton and a half of steel, drunk as a skunk, while texting, and didn’t even stop.
If anyone on here had hit something roughly the size of a deer, dog, or human, but was unsure of what it was…wouldn’t you stop? Even just to see if the car was damaged?