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Md. driver accused of hitting judge who suspended DWI term in 1998 (New DUI)
Washington Post ^ | April 10, 2010 | Dan Morse

Posted on 04/10/2010 9:38:29 PM PDT by tlb

The tragedy of it all was immediately clear: A suspected drunk driver, at 3 in the afternoon, swings his Chevy Tahoe into oncoming traffic.

"He's going to hit us!" Ellen Collier, 81, told her husband, Edwin, 85, who was driving their 2001 Honda Accord.

The strange coincidence took longer to sort out: The Honda's driver, retired Montgomery County District judge Edwin Collier, had presided over thousands of drunken-driving cases, including one in 1998 involving the Tahoe's driver. Collier had spared him jail time, even though the man had been arrested on drinking-and-driving charges twice in three months.

"It's just a total irony," John Kudel, an attorney for the Colliers, said Friday. "This shouldn't happen to anyone. It certainly shouldn't have happened to them."

In the latest case, the man driving the Tahoe -- Rene E. Fernandez, 45 -- is due in court Wednesday to face trial on eight charges related to the August crash, including causing life-threatening injuries while intoxicated.

Fernandez was barely hurt. At the crash scene, he walked about in flip-flops, grinned widely and seemed unconcerned about the Colliers' injuries as other motorists rushed to their aide, according to Montgomery police reports.

Fernandez was tested at more than twice the legal limit for alcohol, the reports say.

His attorney, John Severt, who represented him in 1998 as well, declined to comment.

(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Extended News; US: Maryland
KEYWORDS: accident; dui; karma; recidivist
The universe always gets the last laugh.
1 posted on 04/10/2010 9:38:30 PM PDT by tlb
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To: tlb

Poetic justice.

p


2 posted on 04/10/2010 9:44:35 PM PDT by bwc2221
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To: bwc2221

What goes around (the block) comes around.


3 posted on 04/10/2010 9:44:59 PM PDT by SoCalRight
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To: bwc2221

What goes around (the block) comes around.


4 posted on 04/10/2010 9:45:11 PM PDT by SoCalRight
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To: tlb

http://www.sadtrombone.com


5 posted on 04/10/2010 9:51:24 PM PDT by jiggyboy (Ten per cent of poll respondents are either lying or insane)
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To: tlb

Given the way our economy is going, drunks will be appearing everywhere — as it was in the 1930’s — after the market crashed.

Obama will rightfully be credited for causing it.


6 posted on 04/10/2010 9:54:21 PM PDT by OldNavyVet (One trillion days, at 365 days per year, is 2,739,726,027 years ... almost 3 billion years.)
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To: tlb

“It’s just a total irony,” John Kudel, an attorney for the Colliers, said Friday. “This shouldn’t happen to anyone. It certainly shouldn’t have happened to them.”

Of course it should have. I don’t wish ill on anyone, but if this man was going to hit anyone, I can’t think of anyone else who he should have hit.

I’m really, really glad it wasn’t my elderly parents he hit.


7 posted on 04/10/2010 9:57:52 PM PDT by I still care (I believe in the universality of freedom -George Bush, asked if he regrets going to war.)
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To: SoCalRight

It sure does.


8 posted on 04/10/2010 10:54:09 PM PDT by freekitty (Give me back my conservative vote; then find me a real conservative to vote for)
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To: bwc2221

Gotta love it.


9 posted on 04/10/2010 11:02:34 PM PDT by Yogafist
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To: tlb
Collier had spared him jail time, even though the man had been arrested on drinking-and-driving charges twice in three months.

"It's just a total irony," John Kudel, an attorney for the Colliers, said Friday. "This shouldn't happen to anyone. It certainly shouldn't have happened to them."

I happen to disagree; it couldn't have happened to anyone better...except maybe the defense attorney that got him off.

10 posted on 04/10/2010 11:06:31 PM PDT by ApplegateRanch (If Liberalism doesn't kill me, I'll live 'till I die!)
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To: ApplegateRanch

“I happen to disagree; it couldn’t have happened to anyone better...except maybe the defense attorney that got him off.”

Don’t agree...it’s the job of a defense attorney to try to get his client off - or at least lighten the sentence as much as possible, and read Soviet history to see what happens without those attorneys (and anyone may need one someday).

It is job of a JUDGE to rule on cases like this. Anyone who gets 2 DUIs in 3-months deserves some real punishment (and he was blowing some REAL numbers...he was ripped)...especially if the judge agrees that he’s guilty of the crime. In this case, the judge was trying assuage some social guilt that he apparently had for the “little guy” and let this animal back on the road.

Glad to see JUSTICE finally served.


11 posted on 04/11/2010 3:13:26 AM PDT by BobL
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To: tlb

Gotta love Karma.


12 posted on 04/11/2010 4:36:55 AM PDT by nonliberal (Graduate: Curtis E. LeMay School of International Relations)
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To: nonliberal

13 posted on 04/11/2010 10:19:56 AM PDT by Oztrich Boy (great thing about being a cynic: you can enjoy being proved wrong)
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To: tlb; Abundy; Albion Wilde; AlwaysFree; AnnaSASsyFR; bayliving; BFM; cindy-true-supporter; ...

Maryland “Freak State” PING!

Sorry the wife got hurt as well.


14 posted on 04/11/2010 7:23:44 PM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks (I am Ellie Light. I hate slow drivers.)
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