From the Tucson Citizen.
From the article:
Glenda L. Rumsey, 42, of East Migratory Place, near Broadway and Houghton Road, had a blood-alcohol content that exceeded .08 percent, the legal limit in Arizona, Sgt. Mark Robinson said.
Robinson would not give the figure or say whether Rumsey's BAC would qualify her for an extreme DUI charge.
Rumsey faces charges of second-degree murder, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and leaving the scene of a fatal collision, Robinson said.
The police are only saying she was above the .08 limit, which hardly seems to me enough to account for the way she was apparently driving--but perhaps she was significantly over the limit. They aren't saying.
None of it makes much difference for the Rincon family and Jose's friends anyway, but I would still like to know what was going through the driver's mind.
She is out on a $50,000 bond. Unlike some readers who have emailed me, I do have some compassion for her. It must be a crushing weight to carry to know that you have taken the life of someone like this, and I wonder if homicide is the proper charge for her--it smacks too much of vengeance for my tastes. No amount of that will repair what has happened, and ruining the remainder of the driver's life will not bring back Jose Rincon.
Which is not to say she should be set free.
--Erik Ryberg
Update: there's a spirited discussion of this up on www.drunkcyclist.com. --ER
4 comments:
Mr. Ryberg,
While I agree there must never be vengeance and malice towards an offender, such as in this tragic case, there must be severe penalties to inform others that driving drunk may cost you your livelihood, freedom, and many more rights and privileges. The punishment must be proportionate to the crime and it must deter others for committing the same type of, or similar, acts of violence on completely innocent victims.
All of us can sympathize with the family, especially if you are a parent. However, no one can actually empathize with the death of a child, especially resulting from a senseless, preventable act as this was. The only way I can think of to help prevent future tragedies is to deter this person and others from the opportunity to commit a similar crime while driving drunk.
Thank you for covering this case in your blog.
...while i understand your point & your sentiments, the crushing weight she'll (hopefully) carry is no more than the weight she imposed upon young jose's family...different perhaps, but no more...
...i say 'hopefully' to imply that i don't want her to be a victim of her own stupidity & selfishness, using even more alcohol, in the future, to blunt whatever she must face...
...i'd also like to believe that if she was prosecuted to the full extent of the law, that others might benefit from her mistakes, but that would be naive on my part...
Mr. Ryberg,
I totally agree with your reasoning. Why should anyone have to live with the fact that they have taken a life or injured anyone. We need to go into all the prisons and let all those out who are going to live with the pain of injuring or killing someone. Isn't that the humane thing to do? While we are at it why don't we hire counsolers to help them with their unfortunate suffering.
Jim, please read my post again. I expressly said she should be incarcerated, so I don't understand why you characterize my position as supporting freeing all prisoners and offering them counseling to alleviate their psychological suffering.
My point was only that I don't think she committed homicide. She didn't set out to kill anyone and she didn't kill anyone while committing some other felony. What she did was make a damn stupid choice that resulted in the death of an innocent young man. Worthy of substantial punishment, measurable in years, I would say, but not homicide. Not life.
--ER
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