Business Insider – by Jim Edwards
Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy Andrew Wood will not be charged for fatally running over former Napster COO Milton Olin Jr. in his patrol car while the officer was typing a message into his computer.
We first saw the news on Valleywag, but there is good coverage in the Daily News and LAist.
The instance exposes the different way that law enforcement officials are treated versus civilians in cases where a person is killed because of texting while driving.
It’s illegal to text and drive in California; the state has a specific law against it. Civilians caught doing it can expect to face charges. But a report from the Los Angeles District Attorney’s office shows that the rules may be applied differently to cops.
The incident involving Olin and Wood happened in December 2013 in Calabasas, California. Olin, a key figure at the peer-to-peer music-sharing company that pioneered the online music download industry, was cycling in the bicycle lane when he was killed instantly by Wood’s patrol car.
Wood drifted into the bicycle lane while typing a reply to a colleague who wanted to know whether any other officers were required to attend a fire reported at a high school he had just left. He was trying to tell the other officer that no further backup was needed.
The Los Angeles District Attorney’s report into the incident says that even though it is illegal to text and drive, Wood was not negligent because police officers are expected to respond quickly to messages from colleagues:
Wood had also been texting his wife from his personal phone minutes before the crash, but those texts were not thought to have contributed to Wood’s inattention while driving, the DA’s office said.
In a statement taken at the scene, Wood claimed that Olin had veered into his lane. The DA reported that the opposite was true.
Deputy who killed ex-Napster COO will not be charged b/c he was answering work email http://t.co/cbtnJdtzxU pic.twitter.com/ikk50MQmmD
— DANIEL McMAHON (@cyclingreporter) August 28, 2014
Many of Los Angeles’ cyclists are furious at the lack of charges, according to the LAist. “To say biking advocates are unhappy with the DA’s decision to not press charges is an understatement.”
There is a petition to prosecute Deputy Andrew Wood on Change.org.
Of course ,pigs can pull in behind you and run your numbers because there is always a chance to break it off in your ass. They are special and only you peons are fair game!
Ah yes the police. Those people who have yet to figure out how to park a car. But are allowed to drive them. It only makes sense they would be allowed to be on the computer and talking on the phone as well. No need for them to know what is going on right in front of such. As they don’t know any thing any way. That must be the reason they ar allowed lack of mental capasity to know or do anything so you have to allow them to. Kind of like a 1 year old being allowed to sh@t there dippers right.
Allowed to Not that it is right but allowed to. At least they admit and brag they are allowed to. Were is th social responsability to the tax payer in being allowed to? When do they grow up if they are allowed to remain spoild 2 year olds? Allowed to something to be proud of as police. You have to be allowed to to be on the street and in the way. What happens when people tell you to go home you are not allowed to and pack up and find a good job in the Middle East in your allowed to line of work.
And as well here. If you check DOT. rgulations you will find you are not allowed to oporate a computer or Q,com or such in a moving vehicle for any reason. Most are to have a shut of under law that will not let them be used in a moveing vehicle. So you are breaking a long standing law that was passed on the Federal level years ago as to being allowed to use them. No it is against the law of the land there and a DOT. Violation. And the courts have ruled that doing so is murder on your part at the acident doing so!
Cops are allowed to kill innocent people with their guns, so why wouldn’t they be allowed to kill people with their patrol cars?
Drifting into the bicycle lane and killing someone is acting lawfully? On what planet? They obviously don’t work for us so how do we know their masters didn’t order a hit on this man? Stranger things are going on. But then again, it could just be coincidence theory.
Most likely, your county has a GIS or similar type of website.
Type in a person’s name and you get their address. Don’t expect justice via the criminal judicial system. Sometimes justice requires a personal touch. Killing a member of my family and thinking you have gotten away with it via the criminal court system only gives you a false sense of security. You will be found and you will be dealt with.
100 heads insurance policy