Posted on 02/26/2004 5:51:05 AM PST by Theodore R.
I-25 chain-reaction crash driver sentenced
By Juliette Rule rep9@wyomingnews.com Published in the Wyoming Tribune-Eagle
CHEYENNE - They sat on one side of the courtroom, almost 20 of them, dressed for a funeral, their eyes wet with tears, clutching crumpled Kleenex in their hands.
Across the aisle, one man sat, his face scruffy with a beard, a denim jacket over his white T-shirt. He was the defendant's only friend in court Wednesday morning: there to hear how the driver of a semitrailer who began a chain-reaction crash on Interstate 25 would be sentenced.
The family of 64-year-old John Beers, the only fatal victim in that crash a year ago, let their tears flow as sons and friends stood at the podium and told Laramie County District Judge Nicholas Kalokathis how to sentence Karl Kverno, the 44-year-old retired police officer who failed to stop at a roadblock set up by Wyoming Highway Patrol troopers that clear December day.
At the defense table, Kverno sat quietly as they told of a loving family man, taken from them far too soon and with a measure of cruelty from which they haven't recovered.
The tears stopped two hours later when the judge delivered his decision, eliciting an eruption of hostility targeting the defendant, prosecutor and judge.
Kverno was ordered to pay $14,000 in restitution and sentenced to serve a year in jail. Then, that time was suspended for three years of probation.
"That is an absolute outrage," called out John Beers' son Kevin as Kalokathis left the courtroom.
District Attorney Jon Forwood took some heat too when son Rod Beers crowned Forwood the "worst prosecutor" he'd ever seen.
"Weak," Rod Beers told Forwood.
Money wouldn't cure the family's ill, Rod Beers said during a 15-minute recess midway through the hearing.
The family wanted jail time, a stiff penalty for the truck driver who they think otherwise won't recognize his negligence, and they unanimously demanded Kalokathis impose the maximum sentence allowed under state law: two years for a no-contest plea to criminally negligent homicide and four charges of reckless endangerment.
That's a far cry from the 10 years they might have seen had the state been able to secure a conviction for the aggravated assault Forwood first charged.
"If there was a reason for (the crash), we could understand," Rod Beers said. "But there isn't."
Kverno came before the court as a retired, but well-remembered member of the Norfolk, Va., Police Department, toting an unblemished driving record absent of even a speeding ticket and letters of valor from a chief and an FBI agent.
On the day Kverno maneuvered his Mile-Hi Frozen Foods rig northward, he was driving below the 75 mph posted limit. He might have been driving 60 mph, according to court records and testimony.
A dozen other cars did stop, including another semitrailer driver, when they spotted a patrol car parked diagonally across the lane, emergency lights flashing.
"I want the defendant to know there are worse things than going to jail," Kevin Beers told the court. "I know. One of those things is having the coroner come into your place of business and tell you your dad is dead."
Kverno's three years of probation equals the number of years John Beers stood on the free side of the Berlin Wall when his country called, Kevin Beers said.
Not a good thing to do.
Is/was he a long-hauler?
Troopers had parked two cruisers in the northbound lanes of Interstate 25 about 90 minutes earlier to create a roadblock after a Colorado man rear-ended an officer's car.
State Farm Automobile Insurance Co. filed suit Tuesday against Kverno and Mile Hi Foods in state District Court of Laramie County.
Cheyenne attorney Billie Ruth Edwards contends Kverno could have reasonably anticipated and foreseen the line of cars, which included State Farm-insured drivers Eric Bagbey and Charles M. Gindler.
The company paid out $38,000 on their claims and is seeking reimbursement from Kverno and Mile Hi Foods.
Should he have been driving fatigued....no but then again who hasn't worked when they were fatigued, his record as far as mentioned above doesn't show a history of irresponsibility. Wyoming , may be lenient on dui's and repeat offenders, but in this case it doesn't look as if the court over or under reacted.
Remember , my opinion is worth what your paying for it.
I drive regional (based in SW Pa, Mich. to Va and points in between utilizing Oh and Pa pikes) 48' reefer. Out for 18 - 34 hrs, 3 times a week. Team operation.
I'm not familiar with that terrain (I just looked at my atlas) and it looks like a mostly mountainous 4 lane, but the article states just over the Co. line.
I guess the road would be relatively straight with few surprize hills/knolls/turns.
Anyone familiar with it?
I'm sure this guy's life is a mess right now and that he has a lot of guilt over what his accident caused. But I don't think he's a criminal who should be locked up. At least, I didn't garner that from this article.
Was the roadblock necessary or were the troopers pissed off? Most rear-end accidents don't require a full dress roadblock show.
It's been my experience that close in to a larger city on interstates, the traffic gets hairier and a little bit more insane. Cheyenne's not really huge, but it's still a fair-sized place. No snow that day for Cheyenne (wunderground), but was it after dark? North of Denver, but a fair poke.
American justice is not swift, sure, and through any more. Today it is pathetic, weak, and corrupt, and only the victims have to pay.
The guy had a flawless driving record, and was going 15 mph below the posted speed limit. Is it not possible that this was truly an accident? Or should every fatal accident automatically be punishable by prison?
It varies --- Mostly light to moderate.
Once in a while it is quite busy. Never gets to the point that it is like Los Angeles. Traffic mostly moves at the speed limit. 75 MPH
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