Scott Erickson charged

[wildcard]

https://bleacherreport.com/articles/2929008-ex-mlb-pitcher-scott-erickson-charged-with-reckless-driving-in-fatal-hit-and-run?utm_source=cnn.com&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=editorial

[Can_of_corn]

To save everyone a click, Erickson was allegedly racing another driver that hit pedestrians.

[SteveA]

Such a bizarre situation.  If you hear about two idiots racing their cars somewhere and endangering and killing others... It just doesn't seem that you would picture two adults in their 50s.  MAYBE you wouldn't be totally shocked that one if the  is a 51 year old ex ballplayer.  But one of them being the 57 year old wife of a wealthy, prominent physician?

[Morgan423]

Erickson walks away with a misdemeanor count of reckless driving, while the person who hit the children was charged with "two felony counts of murder and vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence, as well as one felony count of hit-and-run driving resulting in death." 

He got off with a slap on the wrist, even though the description of what happened sounds like he was almost as responsible for what happened as she was.  Legal loopholes are crazy sometimes.

[MurphDogg]

2 minutes ago, Morgan423 said:

He got off with a slap on the wrist, even though the description of what happened sounds like he was almost as responsible for what happened as she was.  Legal loopholes are crazy sometimes.

I mean, not being the person who ran their car into children and kept driving is hardly a legal loophole.

[Morgan423]

7 minutes ago, MurphDogg said:

I mean, not being the person who ran their car into children and kept driving is hardly a legal loophole.

There are many places where a contributor to a wrongful death shares equal legal responsibility to any other participant, regardless of how "directly responsible" they were. 

For example, when the getaway driver for a murder during an armed robbery gone bad is as legally complicit in the murder as the person pulling the trigger was.  That's what I was referring to.  Erickson encountered some luck in the fact that California law doesn't see this that way.

[MurphDogg]

11 minutes ago, Morgan423 said:

There are many places where a contributor to a wrongful death shares equal legal responsibility to any other participant, regardless of how "directly responsible" they were. 

For example, when the getaway driver for a murder during an armed robbery gone bad is as legally complicit in the murder as the person pulling the trigger was.  That's what I was referring to.  Erickson encountered some luck in the fact that California law doesn't see this that way.

If you want to turn, "race you to my house" into a felony murder situation, that would open up an incredible can of worms.

[Frobby]

From the sound of it, a misdemeanor for Erickson does seem kind of light.   I don’t know what stiffer charges might have been available.   

[eddie83]

Erickson and Grossman were fixtures on the local bar circuit and we’re headed back to the same home. 
 

https://www.thedailybeast.com/ex-mlb-pitcher-scott-erickson-was-street-racing-rebecca-grossman-when-2-boys-were-killed-police-allege

[eddie83]

29 minutes ago, MurphDogg said:

If you want to turn, "race you to my house" into a felony murder situation, that would open up an incredible can of worms.

The race itself lead to the deaths. We have no idea how close Erickson was to hitting them? 

Clearly this wasn’t some highway stretch with nobody around. 

[Aristotelian]

3 hours ago, MurphDogg said:

If you want to turn, "race you to my house" into a felony murder situation, that would open up an incredible can of worms.

Not sure about felony murder, but if he could have just as easily killed the kids as her, it does not seem right that he just gets a misdemeanor. 

Odd that he was not charged until two months later. Almost like he was hoping to get away with it. 

 

[Can_of_corn]

4 minutes ago, Aristotelian said:

Not sure about felony murder, but if he could have just as easily killed the kids as her, it does not seem right that he just gets a misdemeanor. 

Odd that he was not charged until two months later. Almost like he was hoping to get away with it. 

 

You think he got to pick when he was charged?

[Aristotelian]

1 minute ago, Can_of_corn said:

You think he got to pick when he was charged?

Maybe I am reading into it but my assumption is he fled the scene with her and did not turn himself in. Otherwise I would think he'd be charged at approximately the same time as her.