If this had happened in Harris County (Houston, basically), I think the driver would be out on bail by now, at least. This happened in Waller County, where, as the article notes, they consider Houston bicyclists "a menace."I mean, if you have to run over six cyclists, being a white teen boy in a truck in Texas is the way to do ithttps://t.co/owJoYLpeDa
— AllAloneInTheMoonHat (@Popehat) September 28, 2021
Back when I was practicing law (which I did pretty much like a kid practices piano, when he'd rather be outside. I speak from experience in that metaphor.), I had reason to once travel to district court in Bastrop County, neighbor to Travis. This was in the day when Bastrop (county seat) was mostly a large wide spot in the road (today it's unrecognizable as that small town I visited 30+ years ago, and it's practically a suburb of Austin, rather than in it's own rural setting). Austin then didn't have the complex of courthouses Harris County does now (I've been to probate court here, in a building that dwarfs the Austin County Courthouse. It's one of several Houston courthouses. Austin had the time I was there had one satellite location, devoted almost entirely to child support cases being handled by the Texas AG for women who couldn't afford a lawyer. It could have run 24/7 and still been crowded with cases. That place was another story entirely.). As I was saying, Austin was hardly the "big city," but driving 30 minutes to Bastrop was like driving back in time 50 years, and in space to somewhere in deep East Texas, where the good ol' boys grow.
The judge knew the lawyer for the husband, and I knew the minute I walked into court my client didn't have a prayer, because the judge knew the husband, too, and he was a good ol' boy, the judge assured me, as he spent more time chatting with the opposing counsel from the bench than worrying about whatever I had to say.
Bastrop County may have changed by now, with population growth and more people living there and working in Austin, but the point is, I didn't have to go all that far to drop off the map into terra incognita where the natives all knew each other and despite your accent (mine is thickly Texan when I need it to be, and I've lived here most of my 66 years), "you ain't from around here."
So I wish I was surprised at Waller County being so cirumspect about charging a 16 year old with a big pick up with manslaughter. But I'm not. It also kinda depends on who his daddy is. Big expensive truck like that in the hands of a 16 year old who just got his license, and the cops don't want to put him in jail now? Yeah, there's a reason for that, and it may well go to the jury pool in Waller County.
I wouldn't be a bit surprised. Which doesn't mean the cyclists can't sue Jr. and get into Daddy's insurance carrier pretty deep (or past them into Daddy's pockets, if it comes to that). But criminal liability? Well, we'll just have to see, won't we?
No surprise that the legal system in small town Texas is corrupted by the good ‘ol boy system, we have the same thing here in rural Michigan and worse; many of the sheriffs’ departments are peopled by whites supremacists and militia members and are openly anti-Democrat and anti-Democratic governance.
ReplyDeleteThe big surprise is that you have a Texas accent! I just assumed from your time in Webster Grove and Kirkwood and southern Illinois that you had a midwestern accent. Very cool! Now I’m picturing you as Sam Eliot in an oversized cowboy hat, sonorously lecturing about how people are more important than ideas or things in your drawl while effortlessly silencing hecklers with droll put downs. ;)
Sam Elliot, huh?
ReplyDeleteI'll have to work on the mustache.