Posted on 01/25/2008 1:39:42 AM PST by LibWhacker
ST. LOUIS (AP) — A Missouri legislator was charged with a felony Thursday for allegedly driving away after hitting a pedestrian with his pickup truck.
Authorities say state Rep. Brad Robinson was driving the truck that hit a 46-year-old man south of St. Louis in the early hours of New Year's Day. His wife, Tara, had told police she was driving, but authorities say a high school's surveillance camera captured the couple switching seats in the truck moments after the accident.
The Democratic lawmaker from Bonne Terre was charged with leaving the scene of an accident, and could get up to four years in prison if convicted. His wife was charged with making a false declaration, a misdemeanor.
Special prosecutor Jack Banas said he was unsure why the couple drove away. "Bottom line, if they had stayed there (at the accident scene) it wouldn't be as bad as it is now," he said.
Calls and e-mails to the 44-year-old lawmaker's office and home Thursday were not returned.
Emergency crews were called at 1:20 a.m. Jan. 1 and told a man was lying on the roadway in Bonne Terre, about 60 miles south of St. Louis.
The victim, Donald Marler of Desloge, has been released from a hospital and is expected to make a full recovery, Bonne Terre police Sgt. William Stegall said. A phone message left at Marler's home was not returned.
In a probable cause statement, Stegall said officers approached two women at the scene to ask if they saw what happened. Stegall said one of the women, Tara Robinson, said they saw the man in the ditch and tried to help.
A short time later, officers were called to the Robinsons' home. The couple told police Tara Robinson, 37, was driving their truck and struck something, then went back to the site and found Marler in the ditch.
But Stegall said police later learned that a video surveillance camera at North County High School recorded the Robinson pickup pulling into the parking lot and the couple switching seats shortly after Marler was struck.
The couple was interviewed again on Jan. 18 and both admitted that Brad Robinson was the driver, the probable cause statement said.
Robinson was first elected to the House of Representatives in 2004. He is the sixth Missouri lawmaker in about a year to face criminal charges.
State Rep. John Bowman was arrested in January 2007 and pleaded guilty this month to his role in a bank and credit card fraud scheme.
State Sen. Chuck Graham was arrested in October and charged with drunken driving. The Columbia Democrat's driving privileges were reinstated this month by a judge, but they were later suspended again for three months because the incident gave him too many points on his driving record.
In December, former state Rep. Nathan Cooper was sentenced to 15 months in prison for an immigration fraud scheme. He resigned his legislative seat late last year.
Sen. Jeff Smith and Rep. Joe Aull were charged last year with misdemeanors of presenting a false identification at a casino.
He’s a dem!
Hit ‘n Run Democrat.
Making his wife take the rap - that’s pretty low.
The obvious conclusion to draw is that Brad had a few drinks in him and did not want to have a DUI. But having his wife switch seats with him and try to take the blame for hitting the pedestrian is a rotten thing to do. If Tara is smart, she’ll dump this bum.
Did he call Teddy for advice?
That Mo Pol is a Mo Fo. A honky Mo Fo.
If it had been a Republican, his party would have been mentioned in the first paragraph. Here, the fact that the guy’s a Democrat is buried in the third paragraph. Typical liberal media bias. These small things do add up.
LOL, yeah found that out at the very end of the article. Notice how they always put the words Rep. in front of the name when it is a democrat.
Perfectly understandable. He had to quickly drive away so he could find a neckbrace to put on.
We had a young Republican legislator in Pennsylvania run over a man in Harrisburg and leave him to die. They found out who he was and he did go to jail.
I live in St. Louis and this was on the news several times over the course of the evening and never once did they specify which party he was with....think it would have been that way with a Republican???
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