Reply #120: State to pay $850,000 for fatal crash involving convict [View All]

[slackmaster]

The state Department of Corrections will pay $850,000 to settle a case claiming the agency failed to closely supervise an offender who killed a woman in a drunken driving accident while under the department's watch. The case led to changes in the agency's practices, said Maria Peterson, a spokeswoman for the corrections department.

Gloria Daquep, 55, was killed in 2004 when a car driven by Charles Roberson III collided head on with her vehicle on Martin Luther King Jr. Way South. Roberson had a blood-alcohol level of 0.16 percent, twice the legal limit for driving.

At the time, Roberson, 33, was under a low level of supervision by the corrections department after a misdemeanor drug conviction.

However, he has a long record of drunken driving, illegal possession of drugs and weapons, and vehicular assault. He should have been under a maximum amount of supervision, attorneys for the family argued....

I can't see any possible justification for letting a known repeat offender have access to a car. And this time the state sanctioned it!

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/359115_crash16.html?source=mypi