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Charges against Michael Bryant dropped. ⇒

   25 May 2010, lunch time

He was being charged with “criminal negligence causing death and dangerous operation of a motor vehicle causing death.” The thing is, Bryant did hit Sheppard (the cyclist). He also tried to drive away after hitting him. He also kept on driving after Sheppard grabbed onto his car, taking him “50 and 100 meters.” I’m pretty sure none of that is cool, even if Sheppard was the angriest drunk cyclist in the history of cyclists.

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Comments

  1. Moral of the story: It’s ok to drive like an idiot, hit bicyclists while stopped at an intersection, and then proceed to drive on the wrong side of the street and kill the bicyclist as long as you have money and a good PR team.

    I don’t buy the whole ‘my car stalled and it then lurched forward’. What car lurches forward when you restart it? What a ridiculous explanation.

    by Iluvitar on May 25 2010, 3:42 pm   #

  2. I don’t understand how they won’t even go to court. If you shoot someone who breaks into your house, it still goes to trial, right? Isn’t this what weaksauce manslaughter charges are for?

    From the way the Star puts it, sounds like it was the car’s fault: “After Sheppard “latched onto the vehicle,” it veered left and continued west in the oncoming eastbound lane.”

    by D on May 25 2010, 5:15 pm   #

  3. I was going to comment on the way the article was written. It’s all, “the car did this, the car did that,” as if the car was driving itself. They give the car agency it doesn’t actually have.

    Going to trial if there was no case would be a waste of time and money. I can understand why the prosecutor would avoid that. What I don’t get is how there is absolutely no case here.

    by ramanan on May 25 2010, 5:57 pm   #

  4. It could be that they will now press lesser charges, but I’m not optimistic. I have yet to find any legal analysis of the whole thing, but perhaps it’s still early.

    by D on May 26 2010, 10:25 am   #

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