Posted on 01/10/2014 11:08:53 AM PST by Titus-Maximus
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie could face criminal prosecution over the George Washington Bridge lane closures if it is found anyone was harmed because of them, Harvard Law School professor Alan Dershowitz says. Appearing Thursday on CNN, Dershowitz singled out the case of the 91-year-old woman who died after emergency personnel were slowed in reaching her because of the September lane closures. If it is shown the woman would have lived if help had arrived sooner, Christie could be charged because of "willful negligence," he said. Christie apologized in a press conference earlier Thursday after it was revealed that two of his aides had orchestrated lane closures on the bridge leading from Fort Lee, N.J., into New York City. Text messages between the two indicated the closures were intended as political punishment for Fort Lee Mayor Mark Sokolich for not supporting Christie in his re-election bid. Though Christie has denied knowing about the action before Wednesday, critics charge the governor set a climate that would have led the aides to think he would approve. The New York Times ran a story in December on examples of people who believed Christie had taken revenge on them. It is for that reason, Dershowitz argued on CNN, that if Christie is charged he should be tried in New York so he would not be able to take revenge on New Jersey judges and prosecutors.
(Excerpt) Read more at newsmax.com ...
As soon as they can free up some personnel from the Fast and Furious prosecutions, I’m sure they’ll be right on it.
B.S. This is a tempest in a teapot. Christie’s apology was a textbook of how a politician should apologize, and anyone that heard it will accept it and move on. I say all this despite the fact that I am NOT an Christie fan.
I really don’t understand this.
1. Wasn’t there medical care for this woman in New Jersey?
2. If it was so critical to get her to NY why didn’t they helicopter her over there?
There are no impeachable offenses to charge the Communists empire with. They make the law and power is damn near complete.
What about freakin’ Bloomberg who went on a traffic blocking rampage when the city council turned down his congestion pricing? Practically overnight every conceivable road job was approved as well as his bike lane fiasco that cut the width of streets by a 3rd not to mention closing entire streets permanently? I can’t even count the amount of times I saw ambulances and firetrucks sitting perfectly still stuck in traffic with their sirens blaring.
3. The ambulance company should be culpable if they didn’t take the simple precaution of checking on the traffic conditions before they left.
It’s very curious how this all comes out right when this Robert Gates this is happening. Gee, just where did they get those emails anyway? Did they Kenyan place a call to the NSA?
What a can of worms if a precedence is set that a governor can be civilly or even criminally liable for damages done because of traffic jams.
I think cooler heads would step in before that happened.
Apology, excuse, cover-up — it matters not. Surely you’re aware that there are different rules for Republicans than for Democrats...in short, they control the “teapot”.
Crisis management experts will tell you that his overlong rambling mess of a presser yesterday only made things worse. But the reality will be shaped by the media, not from what you or even the experts think. And they will not let go of this until they have no dirty cards left to play. Don’t be surprised if there are impeachment attempts, and naturally there will be lawsuits and investigations aplenty to keep this front-and-center. And if more allegations of “thug management” come out, more emails become public, it will go on and on.
Why isn’t this true for each illegal not deported from the U.S. that then commits a crime or kills someone in an uninsured auto accident. You would think the INS, and officials of “sanctuary cities” would be held liable for intentionally not enforcing the laws.
How many people in the USA actually give a damn about a closed lane on some highway in New Jersey? Jeeze.
Her daughter already said the traffic had nothing to do with her mother’s death, she was 91 and it was her time.
I think Dershy is just looking for attention.
(Also there is little doubt in my mind that the traffic on the GW bridge that was not from Fort Lee flowed better -- for once. I used to commute over that bridge and it was usually a nightmare.)
Derche is a jerk. Nothing he says is worth listening to.
He is the Gov for NJ what would you expect a upstanding guy.
The real story as told by the dead woman’s family. They stated that the whole contretemps over traffic had nothing to do with the 90+ ladies death. The woman stated that her mother was long dead before anyone could help her. It was just her time, as stated by her daughter. The ambulance arrived maybe 2 minutes late at most because of traffic delays. However the ambulance was in no hurry, it was taking the slow ride. I live in the county this incident occurred in. It is common, very common, that the local EMT squad is used just to pick up the body. The family knew the lady was long gone when they picked up the phone to dial 911. I salute them for having the character to tell the truth instead of trying to cash in some way.
There would need to be some sort of smoking gun showing Christie ordered or gave approval to incident and none has emerged as of yet. Before anyone gets too down on Dersh remember he was one of the few of the media class who stuck up for George Zimemerman during the whole Travon fiasco. I don’t always agree with Dersh and he is a attention whore but I do think he calls them as he see them.
But you'll never see this sentence:
US DOJ Head Eric Holder could face criminal prosecution over the running of guns to Mexican drug lords if it is found anyone was harmed because of them, Harvard Law School professor Alan Dershowitz says.
Hypocracy is so common with liberals, that it is now expected.
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