REC LIST NEEDED TO WIN THIS ONE.
NY Times
Wall Street CEO got drunk. Got in his Mercedes 450GL SUV and barreled up Water Street at 60 mph. January 2008. Hit-and-run killing followed.
Crushed Florence Cioffi. A secretary. Originally charged: vehicular manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide, felony DUI, and leaving the scene of an accident (20 minute departure.)
Prospective "obscene" "royalty" sentence is 16 DAYS AND A $350 FINE. Court date: February 27th.
New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo can appoint a Special Prosecutor.
PLEASE, REQUEST A SPECIAL PROSECUTOR
- Attorney General Andrew Cuomo 1-800-771-7755
- Governor David Paterson 518-474-8390
- Mayor Bloomberg 212-NEW-YORK
- Deputy Mayor Carol Robles-Roman 212-788-3000
- DA Robert Morgenthau 212-864-7884
This 16-day proposed sentence for a DUI killing is so far off-the-rails that we can find no parallel in New York State. More below the fold:::
This issue needs the REC LIST. RECOMMEND button on right side of page.
-- Contact Andrew Cuomo
-- Contact national media: NY Times, LA Times, WaPo, CBS, NBC, Chi Trib, Times of London
-- Contact local media. Anybody, everybody.
ADA Erin LaFarge back in 2008, in Court, "The woman (Flo Cioffi) flew into the air and was killed."
Anderson is certainly Wall Street royalty. CEO of EEI, 115 Broadway. Works with Merrill Lynch, JPMorgan Chase, Morgan Stanley, Fidelity Investments, Wells Fargo, Putnam Investments, Lehman Brothers, UBS and more. Multimillionaire. Mercedes and BMW. Recently sold a Hamptons house for $6,000,000.
Flo had been at her own office pre-birthday party. Then she tried to hail a taxi.
There appears to be corruption involved. Why would money not be changing hands ???
Legal minimum with Reckless Endangerment -- driving 60 mph down Water Street sound like it to me -- is a year in prison. Maximum on the lesser charges would be 2 1/3 years. Normal sentencing for a DUI killing starts at 2 years. Leaving the Scene of the fatal accident increases the sentence -- but not for royalty.
This case is now sitting with ADA David Hammer. Lord knows if this one is on the take. What would a suitable pay-off be ?
We're hearing word of a plea bargain out of this DA's office for Bernie Madoff. If stealing $50-billion gets "plea bargain" then anything is possible. Madoff could bribe damn near anybody in New york.
The judicial system in New York is set up to bow down to Wall Street. No one was prosecuted for the thousands of Dot.com scams. Merrill participated in the Enron fraud loans. No one was prosecuted.
Any ADA that chooses to prosecute Wall Street nobility ??? Not good for career. DA Morgenthau is 89 years old and senile. Has been for a decade.
This killing and the bizarre wrist-slap treatment must justify appointing a Special Prosecutor. Not prosecuting Wall Streeters now amounts to a class-based immunity.
First time, however, for such a giveaway sentence on a DUI, ever. Anywhere in New York State. 60 mph on an urban street -- Reckless Endangerment at the very least, plus the DUI and leaving the scene.
The cost of a human life goes to nothing.
Creating a deadly hazard -- the defining element for Reckless Endangerment -- is ignored.
We can find no similar case in New York State. No admitted drunk driver in a fatal accident has been let off with a minimal non-felony sentence. The $350 fine is a mystery on top of it all. DUI is $5,000.
This ADA Hammer is all by himself, legally. Possibly, DA Robert Morgenthau has given up on keeping his ADAs on the job.
There is no excuse for this. Failure to prosecute Wall Street royalty -- a terrible disease. Indeed, this echos the carriage scene from "A Tale of Two Cities."
Text of Dickens's "A Tale of Two Cities."
The complaint had sometimes made itself audible, even in that deaf city and dumb age, that, in the narrow streets without footways, the fierce patrician custom of hard driving endangered and maimed the mere vulgar in a barbarous manner. But, few cared enough for that to think of it a second time, and, in this matter, as in all others, the common wretches were left to get out of their difficulties as they could.
With a wild rattle and clatter, and an inhuman abandonment of consideration not easy to be understood in these days, the carriage dashed through streets and swept round corners, with women screaming before it, and men clutching each other and clutching children out of its way. At last, swooping at a street corner by a fountain, one of its wheels came to a sickening little jolt, and there was a loud cry from a number of voices, and the horses reared and plunged.
But for the latter inconvenience, the carriage probably would not have stopped; carriages were often known to drive on, and leave their wounded behind, and why not? But the frightened valet had got down in a hurry, and there were twenty hands at the horses' bridles.
"What has gone wrong?" said Monsieur, calmly looking out.
A tall man in a nightcap had caught up a bundle from among the feet of the horses, and had laid it on the basement of the fountain, and was down in the mud and wet, howling over it like a wild animal.
"Pardon, Monsieur the Marquis!" said a ragged and submissive man, "it is a child."
"Why does he make that abominable noise? Is it his child?"
"Excuse me, Monsieur the Marquis -- it is a pity -- yes."
The fountain was a little removed; for the street opened, where it was, into a space some ten or twelve yards square. As the tall man suddenly got up from the ground, and came running at the carriage, Monsieur the Marquis clapped his hand for an instant on his sword-hilt.
"Killed!" shrieked the man, in wild desperation, extending both arms at their length above his head, and staring at him. "Dead!"
The people closed round, and looked at Monsieur the Marquis. There was nothing revealed by the many eyes that looked at him but watchfulness and eagerness; there was no visible menacing or anger. Neither did the people say anything; after the first cry, they had been silent, and they remained so. The voice of the submissive man who had spoken, was flat and tame in its extreme submission. Monsieur the Marquis ran his eyes over them all, as if they had been mere rats come out of their holes.
He took out his purse.
"It is extraordinary to me," said he, "that you people cannot take care of yourselves and your children. One or the other of you is for ever in the way. How do I know what injury you have done my horses. See! Give him that."
He threw out a gold coin for the valet to pick up, and all the heads craned forward that all the eyes might look down at it as it fell. The tall man called out again with a most unearthly cry, "Dead!"
He was arrested by the quick arrival of another man, for whom the rest made way. On seeing him, the miserable creature fell upon his shoulder, sobbing and crying, and pointing to the fountain, where some women were stooping over the motionless bundle, and moving gently about it. They were as silent, however, as the men.
"I know all, I know all," said the last comer. "Be a brave man, my Gaspard! It is better for the poor little plaything to die so, than to live.
So -- now -- with Florence Cioffi. Her life valued by the New York DA Office at 16 days and $350.
We beg your pity. We miserable creatures. Thank you.