American Justice Black and White North and South

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LexingtonChristopher Hignite

American justice in Black and White....North and South.November 15th, 2010 12:33 am ET

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Racism may be more common in the Deep South bu

the court system has remained unchanged in theNorth and the South.

Lexington Kentucky and Vail Colorado are 1182.37

miles apart when talking about distance. Lexington

sits at 1000 ft above sea level while Vail runs

between 8022 and an impressive 11570 ft above sea

level. On the map Lexington sits at Latitude 38.03 N

and Longitude 84.44 W with Vail appearing at

Latitude 39.64 N and Longitutde 106.39 W.

However, when the subject of racism in the criminal

justice system is discussed, elevation and latitude

make little, if any difference. It seems in the North

they're just more honest about it. Two similar crimina

cases, one in Lexington and one in Vail, demonstrate

this in BLACK and WHITE.

Here are the similarities:

Martin Joel Erzinger tragically ran over a cyclist

on July 3 in Vail Colorado with his Mercedes an

fled the scene of the accident.

Glenn Rahan Doneghy tragically struck a police

officer in April in Lexington Kentucky with his

SUV and fled the scene of the accident.

Erzinger was later arrested at his home address

Doneghy was later arrested at his home

address.

Erziner alledgedly veered from his course onto

the side of the road and hit Dr. Steven Milo.

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Doneghy alledgedly veered from his course and

struck Officer Bryan Durman near the side of the

road.

Erzinger's victim, Dr. Steven Milo suffered

extensive injuries. "Milo suffered spinal cord

injuries, bleeding from his brain and damage to

his knee and scapula, according to court

documents," Randy Wyrick for Vail Daily

reported. "Over the past six weeks he has

suffered 'disabling' spinal headaches and faces

multiple surgeries for a herniated disc and

plastic surgery to fix the scars he suffered in the

accident." "He will have lifetime pain," Milo's

lawyer, Harold Haddon, wrote. "His ability to

deal with the physical challenges of his

profession -- liver transplant surgery -- has been

seriously jeopardized."

Doneghy's victim, Officer Bryan Durman,tragically died from his injuries.

This is where the stories go in opposite directions:

Erzinger oversees over $1 billion in assets for

"ultra high net worth individuals, their families

and foundations," according to Worth. Erzinger

is white.

Doneghy has a criminal history, mental health

history, drug abuse history and has a modest

income. Doneghy is black.

Martin Joel Erzinger will not be charged with a

felony because "Felony convictions have some

pretty serious job implications for someone in

Mr. Erzinger's profession," according to District

Attorney Mark Hurlbert. Hurlbert explained that

charging Erzinger with a felony could affect his

job and ability to pay restitution. "When you're

talking about restitution, you don't want to take

away his ability to pay," the DA said.

Doneghy has been charged with murder. The

indictment says that Doneghy "knew or should

have known that the accident resulted in the

death or serious injury of a person," but that he

didn't stop to help. Defendants in cases like

Doneghy's usually are charged with one of three

offenses: reckless homicide, which carries a

sentence of one to five years; second-degree

manslaughter, five to 10 years; or wanton

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murder, 20 years to life.For charges of second-

degree manslaughter and wanton murder, the

accused knows his actions could cause serious

injury or death but consciously disregards the

risk. For a murder charge, the accused shows

"extreme indifference to human life."

The prosecutor in Vail is honest, at least, about

the reasons why a rich Smith Barney fund

manager is being handled with kid gloves.

Hurlbert tells the Vail Daily that his "inartful

comments" did not convey his reasons for

charging Erzinger with misdemeanours instead

of a felony. Here is his edited answer.

Despite what is implied in the Vail Daily, Dr. Milo

never asked me to plea Mr. Erzinger to a felony. Dr.

Milo asked that I plead Mr. Erzinger to a felony

deferred judgment and sentence.

What this means is that Mr. Erzinger would plead to a

felony leaving the scene of an accident, and the

judgment would be set aside.

In either two or four years, as long as Mr. Erzinger

met certain conditions, the case would drop off his

record and he would be allowed to seal this case.

Since there was no alcohol or drugs involved, the

only conditions I could legally ask for were that he

pay restitution and stay out of trouble.

Given that he had a clean history, Mr. Erzinger would

essentially have been able to write a check, and the

case would then be dismissed. On top of that, while

Dr. Milo was still probably recovering from his

injuries, Mr. Erzinger would be able to say that he had

no criminal history and even deny that anything had

happened. That is not something I could stomach.

I therefore offered that Mr. Erzinger plead guilty to

leaving the scene of an accident and careless driving

causing serious bodily injury.

This means that for the rest of his life, Mr. Erzinger

will have on his record that he carelessly drove,

caused another human being serious bodily injury

and left the scene. He will lose his driver's license,

face potential jail time as determined by the judge

and still have to pay restitution, which as I said in the

Vail Daily is important to us but not an overriding

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objective in the plea.

Obviously there is a benefit to Mr. Erzinger on taking

the misdemeanors -- he keeps his job.

Doneghy's case was treated much differently.

The Lexington Herald-Leader reported that

Detective Richardson testified before the grand

jury and earlier at a preliminary hearing in

district court that a witness had said the only

vehicle traveling down the one-way street at the

time of the incident was the suspect vehicle, the

attorneys say.

The detective then said in both hearings that the

suspect vehicle deviated from its course of

travel and struck Durman as he stood next to the

vehicle he was investigating, the attorneys say

in the motion.

But the witness, Ronnie Hood, was sitting on his

porch, several doors down the street from where

Durman was struck, and he told Richardson that

the shrubs in front of his house blocked his view

of the street, the attorneys say. Hood did not

know anything had occurred until he heard a

loud noise, which was the collision, they say.

"And from Mr. Hood's own lips Detective

Richardson had knowledge during both times

that he testified that Mr. Hood did not see the

suspect vehicle traveling down Limestone,

deviating from its current course of travel and

striking Officer Durman," the motion says.

The motion says that had the grand jury not

been told that the suspect vehicle deviated from

its course and struck Durman, Doneghy might

not have been indicted for murder.

The motion also maintains that when Doneghy'sattorneys asked Assistant Commonwealth's

Attorney Lori Boling who the supposed witness

was who saw the incident, Boling replied that

there was no witness.

The defense attorneys maintain that false

testimony was presented to the grand jury "in

order to elevate the seriousness of what

occurred in the case against Glenn Doneghy."


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Hurlbert appears to be saying that he would

rather have Erzinger have a record forever

instead of a clean record after a couple of years.

He also says that he can't change it. "I made the

plea offer months ago, and the defense has

accepted. This means that even if I wanted to

change the plea offer, I could not." Erzinger is in

no danger of facing jail time and he will not lose

his job directly because of the charges against

him. District Attorney Mark Hurlbert is not

charging Martin Joel Erzinger with a felony,

because "Felony convictions have some pretty

serious job implications for someone in Mr.

Erzinger's profession," which is managing

billions for rich people.

Attorneys for Glenn Doneghy, who is accused of

murder in the death of Lexington police Officer

Bryan Durman, have filed a motion seeking

dismissal of the indictment against their client,

claiming that a detective gave false testimony

before the grand jury that indicted Doneghy and

in a hearing on the case in Fayette District Court.

Attorneys Kate Dunn, Gayle Slaughter and Sally

Wasielewski, in the motion filed this week, also

say that prosecutors knew that the detective,

David Richardson, gave false testimony before

the grand jury. The attorneys accuse the Fayette

County Commonwealth's Attorney's Office of

prosecutorial misconduct.

At issue were these sentences Richardson

spoke in front of the grand jury and at a

preliminary hearing: "A witness advised the only

vehicle driving on the roadway at the time was

the suspect vehicle. The suspect vehicle

deviated from its current course of travel and

struck Officer Durman as he stood next to the

vehicle he was investigating."

Doneghy's attorney, Kate Dunn, argued the

statement made it seem as if a witness had seen

Doneghy's vehicle veer off course and hit the

officer. However, the witness the detective was

referring to, Ronnie Hood, testified Friday that

he did not see the collision. He only heard it.

"The bushes in my yard were blocking my view,"

Hood said.


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The detective argued that his statement that

Doneghy's vehicle "deviated from its current

course of travel" was not intended to tie in with

the witness statement before it. The latter

sentence was a "matter of fact" supported by

"evidence, common sense and simple math," he

said.

During heated and lengthy cross-examination

that drew several objections from prosecutors,

Dunn questioned whether Richardson paused

long enough between the sentences to

differentiate the witness' statement from the

unattributed statement.

"If you were sitting on a grand jury and you

heard an officer testify to what you just heard,

would you assume there was a difference?"

Dunn said.

Judge James Ishmael overruled the motion after

hearing more than an hour of testimony and

cross examination, saying he found no evidence

of intentional abuse of the grand jury.

Ishmael conceded that "a reasonable person"

could have thought a witness supported

Richardson's second statement.

"But did Detective Richardson say that? No, hedidn't say that," he said.

This is as blatant a case of Clintonesque semantics

as I have ever seen! Yes, Judge Scorsone claims, the

detective's words could have been taken, and

probably were, in a way that could have confused and

influenced the decision of the grand jury. However,

since one could pause in different ways, use accents

differently and alter the inflection of one's voice and

change the meaning in different ways, the officer didnot lie.

Scorsone, it seems, has dodged the wrath of

Lexington's white population and increased his

chances at re-election. It's hard to fault Scorsone in

his position. The citizens have already voted, and

rightly so, to honor Officer Durman by naming the

street after him. I would imagine that the Judge

expects the system and the jury to make the proper

decision in the courtroom. The most disappointing


7/9

matter is the lack of charges against the officer and

the Assistant County Attorney.

Rich or poor, U.S. citizens are entitled to equal

justice. But promise and practice in U.S. law can

sometimes seem worlds apart.

It was not until 1956, Supreme Court Justice Arthur

Goldberg reminded New York University law students

last week, that the Supreme Court finally "made its

first broad pronouncement in the area of economic

equality in the criminal process."

^ Severe Disadvantages. The landmark Griffin v.

Illinois decision held that constitutional rights were

violated by a state law under which defendants had to

purchase a transcript of the trial be fore they could

appeal to a higher court.

"There can be no equal justice," said the court,

"where the kind of trial a man gets depends on the

amount of money he has." Since then, the court has

handed down several related rulings, notably the

Gideon decision affirming the right to court-appointed

counsel in all criminal cases if a defendant cannot

afford to hire a lawyer (TIME, Oct. 18).

Martin Erzinger and Glenn Doneghy committed the

same crime in almost identical situations. The

similarities, however, stop there. The prosecution inErzinger's case admittedly doesn't want to

disadvantage a rich, white fund manager and cause

him to lose his job. Erzinger will be charged with

misdemeanors. The prosecution in Doneghy's case

has ignored all laws, lied to the grand jury, lied to the

defense attorneys and intend to pursue beyond the

maximum legitimate charges against a poor, already

disadvantaged black man.

Thus is the state of racism in the American justicesystem in black and white. It is no wonder blacks

outnumber their white counterparts 500% in our

prison system.

Change.org has organized a petition titled "Don't Drop

Felony Charges Against Hit-and-Run Wealth

Manager."

The petition reads:


8/9

Traffic laws exist to motivate all drivers to act in a

manner that is safe for other users of the road,

including pedestrians, cyclists, and other drivers.

To those of us who rely on bicycles for

transportation and recreation, enforcement of

laws that ensure our safety on the road is vital.

The enforcement of traffic laws should not differ

depending on a driver's ability to write a check,

but rather on the ability of the law to motivate

drivers to drive safely. What Martin Joel Erzinger

is accused of doing is clearly criminal, but

dropping felony charges will set a message to

drivers that the penalties for neglecting the

welfare of others on the road, causing life-altering

injury, and showing no concern for the victim

might not be as serious as the law indicates.

While Martin Joel Erzinger would like to write afew checks and move on with his life, we must

ensure that actions such as his are punished to

the full extent of the law. Please do not drop

felony charges against Martin Joel Erzinger.

I'd like to add to this petition. Please drop the

murder charges against Glenn Rahan Doneghy.

Remember this, if the proper charges are not filed,

the jury may dismiss the case altogether.

I'm asking that the entire black community and

anyone else who believes in Equal Justice Under

The Lawto donate $5 to his legal fund. Contact

attorneys Dunn, Wasielewski and Gayle Slaughter

for information on how to donate.

Copyright Christopher Hignite 2010 All Rights

Reserved. This article cannot be copied for email

or other websites.

The author grants permission to republish the title

and first paragraph of this article provided they

are linked to the original article here on Examiner.

He welcomes emails:

[email protected]


9/9

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American Justice Black and White North and South