Tougher Laws Are the Best Antidote to Drunk Drivers

When murders occur, we all know how to react. We want the killer to be caught and put away forever. Because there’s virtually universal agreement on that, it’s the perfect opportunity for public officials to step up, decry the violence and push for maximum punishment.

It’s not surprising, then, to see police or prosecutors before the cameras in high-profile murder cases. Southern California and the nation have provided no shortage of opportunities in recent months.

But what about people who don’t kill with guns, knives or their hands? What about people whose weapon is a snootful of liquor and a loaded SUV or pickup truck? The victims they leave behind are no less dead, their loved ones no less bereaved, angered or demoralized.

Where’s the outrage when that happens? Where are the public officials denouncing these crimes on camera?

Even if they called press conferences, would the cameras and newspaper reporters show up? Our ambivalence may well reflect society’s. Do we as a country view a drunk driver behind the wheel of a 1-ton killer with the same contempt as a cold-blooded killer?

We all know the answer is no.

This has all come home to me because of a letter from the family of a young Huntington Beach woman killed in March when a man alleged to have been drunk ran a red light at 80 mph and plowed into a car carrying the woman and two of her friends. All three women--Jillian Baedeker, Chelsea Toma and Nancy Le--died; the alleged drunk driver, James Paul Bell Jr., survived. Baedeker and Toma were 19, Le 18.

The letter, written by Rick Baedeker, Jillian’s father, to the Orange County district attorney’s office, is nothing less than a family’s anguished questions about justice.

In the letter (the family sent me a copy), Baedeker writes: “In the ensuing weeks [after the accident in March], friends and relatives asked me if I was filled with hate for Mr. Bell. I said that I was not, and that I had no intention of participating in the trial unless asked to do so by the district attorney.

“At the same time, I expressed confidence in the legal system. I was sure that the process would result in a just punishment for the crime that ended the lives of three beautiful young girls and, perhaps more important, a just punishment that would protect and preserve an American society that does not allow drunk drivers to kill its citizens.”

Baedeker says police told him Bell “would very likely” be charged with murder. Instead, the D.A.’s office has charged him with gross vehicular manslaughter while driving under the influence. If Bell has no prior convictions, the maximum sentence would be in the 16-year range. Baedeker says he has discovered that if Bell pleads guilty, he could get a reduced sentence that might make him eligible for parole in six to eight years.

“This is a just punishment?” Baedeker writes. “Two years for each of the dead girls?”

Bryan Brown, a senior assistant district attorney, oversaw the review of the Bell case and confirms that prosecutors considered a second-degree murder charge. The evidence, however, forced them to file the lesser charge, Brown says.

“It’s not tough to figure out what to file, morally,” Brown says. “It is tough to figure out what we can file based on the facts of the case.”

He goes on to say that, despite Bell’s alleged drunkenness--ironically, perhaps because of it--prosecutors couldn’t prove he had the “conscious awareness” that he would kill someone. Nor did other evidence exist to support the more serious charge.

Brown promises that prosecutors will thoroughly review Bell’s past before sentencing recommendations are made to a judge.

These cases disgust me, but I can’t fault the D.A.’s decision. Prosecutors are ethically bound to file only those charges they believe the evidence supports. If the rest of us are outraged that someone can get drunk and end up killing three people and possibly face only a few years in prison, we should change the laws that guide prosecutors.

That is exactly what the national Mothers Against Drunk Drivers wants to do. Its new president is pushing the slogan, “Get MADD All Over Again” as a way to “reignite the fire under the nation on the issue of drunk driving,” says Paula Birdsong, California’s executive director. An element of that would be to increase penalties for drunk-driving deaths, she says.

A final word from the Baedeker family:

“A slap on the hand for this crime would be a sucker punch to the families of Jillian, Chelsea and Nancy and a violation of our trust in the criminal justice,” Baedeker writes. “My family and I don’t want vengeance. We want a just punishment.”

In a way, the Baedeker family’s complaint shouldn’t go to the D.A.’s office.

It should go to all of us.

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Dana Parsons may be reached at (714) 966-7821 or or by e-mail at [email protected].