Woman Sentenced to Seven Years for Violation Probation by Driving Her Children to School

Associated Press ^ | Jul 8, 2005 | Anon

[Pharmboy]

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) - A woman who was forbidden from driving after pleading guilty in a fatal crash was sentenced to more than seven years in prison for violating probation when she took her children to school. To avoid jail time, Sonia Ortiz, 25, had accepted a plea deal in August for her involvement in a 2003 crash that killed West Palm Beach Police Officer Thomas Morash.

Ortiz, who did not have a license, pulled out in front of Morash, who was on a motorcycle, according to a Florida Highway Patrol report. She was charged with driving without a valid driver's license causing death.

She was arrested again April 15 after a Palm Beach County sheriff's deputy saw her driving alone after dropping off her children at their elementary school.

Ortiz said in court Thursday that she had no other way of getting the four children to school.

Circuit Judge Jorge Labarga said she would continue to flout the law and drive.

"It's now my duty to protect society," Labarga said.

[TheOtherOne]

WEST PALM BEACH — A judge handed the maximum penalty Thursday to the woman involved in the traffic accident which killed a West Palm Beach motorcycle officer, sentencing Sonia Ortiz to more than seven years in prison for violating her probation.

Ortiz, 25, was forbidden from driving as part of the original plea deal that kept her out of prison in the death of officer Thomas Morash, a Port St. Lucie resident.

Andrea Morash, widow of West Palm Beach motorcycle officer and Port St. Lucie resident Thomas Morash, gets a hug Thursday after sentencing for Sonia Ortiz.


But then she got caught dropping her children off at West Gate Elementary School in suburban West Palm Beach.

Circuit Judge Jorge Labarga listened to Ortiz's argument Thursday that she had no other way to get her children to the school.

That her husband has abandoned her and the four kids.

That her sister is struggling under the burden of caring for them.

Then Labarga rejected it.

He told Ortiz he had previously agreed to keep her out of prison in large part because of her children.

But he wasn't going to do it again because she would keep on flouting the law and driving.

"It's now my duty to protect society," Labarga said before announcing the sentence.

The packed courtroom erupted in applause by relatives of Morash and fellow West Palm Beach officers.

"An outrage," Ortiz's attorney, Assistant Public Defender Robert Fallon, later called that display.

Ortiz's sister exited the courtroom with her children. One child waved goodbye but couldn't catch Ortiz's eye as the mother's head was bowed at the defense table, sobbing.

Outside the courtroom, Morash's mother, Sally, said it was infuriating to hear Ortiz talk of her children.

"What about my granddaughter? What about her? How she has no father? ... How dare Ms. Ortiz bring up her children?" Sally Morash said.

Morash died minutes after the October 2003 accident along Antique Row in West Palm Beach. Ortiz pulled in front of the motorcycle officer at an intersection criticized for its poor visibility.

Experts conflicted on whether Morash was speeding and contributed to the crash. Morash, 33, was a 12-year police veteran.

Ortiz, who had no license, was driving to the store to get juice for her children.

[Blood of Tyrants]

Well said.

[TheOtherOne]

[TheOtherOne]

"Outside the courtroom, Morash's mother, Sally, said it was infuriating to hear Ortiz talk of her children. "What about my granddaughter? What about her? How she has no father? ... How dare Ms. Ortiz bring up her children?" Sally Morash said."

[Cheburashka]

I apologize. I have no right to be snotty.

If you disagree with me, you should state why.

That doesn't mean I will agree with your reasons.

[TheOtherOne]

Driver in '03 wreck killing West Palm officer violates probation, gets 7 years

By Missy Stoddard
Staff Writer
Posted July 8 2005

 

Sonia Ortiz ran out of second chances on Thursday.

Less than a year after prosecutors and Circuit Judge Jorge Labarga agreed to a deal that kept Ortiz out of prison so she could care for her four young children, Ortiz was caught driving illegally -- the very crime that first landed her in hot water.

Ortiz, 25, was involved in a crash that killed West Palm Beach Police Officer Thomas Morash in October 2003.

Despite her sobs and apologies, this time Labarga threw the book at Ortiz, sending her to prison for 71/2 years. Prosecutor Todd Weicholz supported the sentence, arguing that Ortiz had "thumbed her nose at the plea agreement."

Family and friends, including a dozen of Morash's fellow officers, applauded as Ortiz's wails echoed through the courtroom.

"There's some closure now," said Morash's widow, Andrea, who wears a tiny gold replica of her husband's badge around her neck, as does their 9-year-old daughter, Tatyana. "I felt from the beginning she didn't get what she deserved."

Ortiz, an 11th-grade dropout, had no license when she drove into Morash's path on South Dixie Highway and Roseland Drive. After close to a year of wrangling between the state and the defense, Labarga put Ortiz on 16 months of house arrest followed by 18 months of probation for driving without a license, causing death. The judge also allowed for Ortiz to apply for a license after completing probation. Under no circumstances was Ortiz to get behind the wheel.

On Thursday, Labarga listened as a first-grade teacher at Westgate Elementary testified about seeing Ortiz pick up her children from school in a green van at least three times the week of April 11. On one occasion, Barbara Moritz said, Ortiz chatted on a cell phone as the children sat in the front seat without seatbelts. Moritz's request to have the children strapped in went unheeded, she said.

But Moritz recognized Ortiz from news coverage of the Morash case and reported what she saw to an assistant principal. When nothing was done, Moritz encouraged fellow teacher Jennifer Drake to alert her husband, a sheriff's detective. It was Robert Drake who spotted Ortiz behind the wheel on Friday, April 15, as he dropped his child off at the same school.

At the time, Ortiz and her four children were living with a friend and her four children, according to Ortiz. The North Congress Avenue apartment was about a half-mile from Westgate.

Ortiz testified that at the time she was working at McDonald's and cleaning homes two to three days a week. Having been abandoned by her children's father two months after Morash's death, Ortiz said she was supporting her family with food stamps and her two jobs. She had walked her children to school in the past, she testified, but she didn't own a stroller and her roommate was unable to watch Ortiz's two toddlers on April 15, so Ortiz opted to drive them to school, she said.

"I wish I had someone to take them that day," she said.

She denied driving on the other occasions.

Ortiz's sister, Maritza Figueroa, is now caring for Ortiz's children, as well as her own three. She brought Ortiz's oldest, an 8-year-old boy, to court Thursday. The boy waved to his mother upon seeing her on the witness stand. The children are in therapy, public defender Robert Fallon said.

Though Ortiz begged for mercy for her children's sake, Labarga said he had been sympathetic once before.

"You, however, made a decision to continue to violate the law in the same manner that led to the death of a police officer," he said. "My duty is to protect society from you."

Missy Stoddard can be reached at mstoddard@sun-sentinel.com or 561-832-2895.

[planekT]

...Why does substituting the horse for horsepower make a difference? Jeez, the number of people here who repeat what the government has told them astounds me....

It's the law. If not, we don't need insurance, driver's licenses, vehicle safety standards, speed limits, stop signs, traffic lights, etc. Go ride your horse on the freeway and see what happens.

---

Don't try riding your horse while you're drunk. In two cases in two different states (the most recent was in Texas), people were charged for DUI who were riding a horse.

Apparently there are judges who say you are operating a motor vehicle when you are not. It's quite a stretch of the language of the statutes.

[Blood of Tyrants]

I am arguing for a balance of the people to travel freely and the power of the government to regulate it with the balance coming firmly down on the freedom side. If you have demonstrated the ability to safely and responsibly operate a vehicle, then you should. It is likely that at one time she did have a valid license.

Even if you have an accident involving the death of another person, because of the huge impact that denying a person the right to drive has, the government should have to show compelling evidence before they are allowed to completely deny that right.

[Cheburashka]

Certain contracts have to be registered with the state in order that contract rights and privileges can be enforced by the state.

You don't have to, of course, but don't complain to the government if things go bad.

[-YYZ-]

One more comment:

While it does appear that this woman has little respect for the law, her own safety, that of her passengers, or that of other road users, I will say that perhaps a 7 year sentence for violating probabtion is a little severe. What will a 7-year sentence actually mean in terms of time served? In any case, a considerably shorter sentence probably would have sufficed in sending a message to her. In any case, perhaps this will be a deterrent for all the other scofflaws out there driving around with no license and/or insurance and a rather casual attitude to driving safety, although I doubt it.

[buffyt]

Excellent point. I didn't have any children until I was 30. Can't imagine 4 kids by the time I was 25.

[Nov3]

Amazing... she had not served a day of jail time at all. At least that will change now.

Yeah we really need to kick a child molestor or killer out of prison to make room for someone who had a traffic accident. Great idea.

[ikka]

make room for someone who had a traffic accident

She was driving without a license in the original offense. You don't think that should be a factor?

[Cheburashka]

I am arguing for a balance of the people to travel freely and the power of the government to regulate it with the balance coming firmly down on the freedom side. If you have demonstrated the ability to safely and responsibly operate a vehicle, then you should.

-----

I agree with you on the above.

As for the rest, she acted irresponsibly in not maintaining her license.

Then a person was killed. The judge seems to have believed that she had some responsibility for that awful event.

She made an agreement that called for her not to drive and therefore not to go to prison.

She violated that agreement.

There are alternative methods of transportation. If she had called her children's school, I bet the teachers could have worked out a rotating schedule to pick up/drop off her children. I bet they would have been happy to do so.

I won't accept the idea that she had no alternatives.

I am sorry that her children will suffer, but that often happens when you flout the law.

[Marysecretary]

I know. People really aren't very smart.

[Marysecretary]

I hope it turns out okay for them. They're the real victims here. She had a choice; they didn't. Ah, those disappearing husbands. Such heroes.

[subterfuge]

Exactly. She was unfortuneate enough, or stupid enough, maybe both, to hit someone in the protected class.

[Pharmboy]

That's pretty damning stuff. Did she EVER have a license?

[Blood of Tyrants]

An agreement made with (probably) a pubic defender for a lawyer when she was probably threatened with a long time in jail by an overzealous prosecutor (probably the same one going after Rush) with a governemnt with an unlimited budget to fight against her is hardly what could be called an a freely made decision. It was made under duress at best.

I can guarantee that if she had had the money to hire a good lawyer and fight it in court, she would not have had such a harsh sentence handed down upon her. Unfortunately, in the US, you can have only as much justice as you can afford.

[Tax-chick]

I see ... cute!