LA Road Rage Doctor Guilty!

[pedaling squares]

I will tell you one thing, in my state in Australia, if the Doc did what he did over here, there is no way he would get five years. Or if he did, because of time served (since it happened in July 2008), at most he would do very little prison time (6-8 months max.), the likely result is that he would be straight out on parole (assuming he was out on bail) without actually spending a day behind bars, paid a fine and be on a good behaviour bond, with a conviction recorded. Does that sort of thing apply in America?

I find it laughable that somebody would go out of their way to hurt themselves for financial gain.

This man would most likely not have received jail time in British Columbia. He would probably have received a conditional discharge with a probation term. We are very soft on crime compared to some Canadian provinces and probably all American states.

 

[CentralCaliBike]

I will tell you one thing, in my state in Australia, if the Doc did what he did over here, there is no way he would get five years. Or if he did, because of time served (since it happened in July 2008), at most he would do very little prison time (6-8 months max.), the likely result is that he would be straight out on parole (assuming he was out on bail) without actually spending a day behind bars, paid a fine and be on a good behaviour bond, with a conviction recorded. Does that sort of thing apply in America?

I find it laughable that somebody would go out of their way to hurt themselves for financial gain.

It can happen that way, but when someone is seriously injured and the prosecutor and judge do what they are supposed to it means several years in prison - I have seen cases where a judge will throw out the time for the injury, perhaps even give probation, but they are going against the spirit of the law and, in a case with these type of facts, 5 years was the minimum I would have expected if the case went to trial.

 

[Anonymous]

I was in the courtroom yesterday and witnessed the destruction of a doctor, who has served the public for over 30 years. The court, and "holier than though" Prosecutor, choose to use Dr. Thompson as an example. They offered him up to the biking community as a form of revenge to an ongoing problem. The sacrificial lamb...

SO GENTLEMEN - REMEMBER MY WORDS WELL EVERY TIME LIFE BEGINS TO FAIL YOU... Oh yeah - enjoy your bike ride...

Looks to me like the spirit of "Doctor Demento" drives on as "csalapatas". BTW, Jeffrey Dahmer's father couldn't believe that his son had turned into the monster serial killer he became either.

To me, the biggest TRUTH to come out of this case was spoken by one of the victims, Peterson,

“There’s no happiness involved,” he said. “No good comes of this. So you ask if there’s satisfaction: Not really. It’s relief that justice was served but there’s no winner no net gain from this. Everybody involved has lost. It’s sad, across the board. The only good that can come of this is if drivers and cyclists look at this as a wakeup call and respect each other; that’s the one minute bit of good.” (quoted from Velo News web site)

 

[Lifeshape]

I'm glad the Doc got put away and maybe with some good behavior he can get some clemency while enriching the lives of fellow prisoners. But for an MD to "teach them a lesson" in the method he chose is deplorable. What happens if a mother or grandmother walks across the street with a child outside of the crosswalk and he choses to hit them "to teach a lesson?" Or, over the knife he pops a liver to an alcoholic "to teach a lesson?"
Many well intentioned and successful people have been stripped of their good name for a single false move. Dr T is just one of them.

 

[TexasTom]

Heck, I'm moving to California where they are at least trying to protect cyclists.

In Texas you can smoke dope while drunk, kill two cyclists and get a much lessor sentence.

 

[philcrisp]

This man would most likely not have received jail time in British Columbia. He would probably have received a conditional discharge with a probation term. We are very soft on crime compared to some Canadian provinces and probably all American states.

I think that a man like this suffers most from the fall out from the verdict. As csalapatas pointed out the Doctor has been struck off and when he gets out will suffer from the loss of his reputation. (Both thoroughly deserved) It's hard to imagine any jurisdiction where that wouldn't be that case, regardless of the sentence available to the judge.

 

[BroDeal]

Why didn't he make a deal? Is he stupid? Did he get bad legal advice? Was the sentence in the deal offered too much for him to accept at the time? Is he like csalapatas in that he thinks so little of others that he could not conceive of being sentenced to prison for stepping on what he thinks of as a bug.

 

[CentralCaliBike]

Why didn't he make a deal? Is he stupid? Did he get bad legal advice? Was the sentence in the deal offered too much for him to accept at the time? Is he like csalapatas in that he thinks so little of others that he could not conceive of being sentenced to prison for stepping on what he thinks of as a bug.

Ego (surgeons have it in spades); it is also possible that the court was going to give some amount of prison and he felt that any was as bad as the max; lastly, it is possible that his attorney convinced him he could win the case

Forgot the last one - it is likely that the prosecutor was not interested allowing him to plead to anything less than the felony charges and those would have resulted in losing his license, and a conviction would also result in a large amount of his estate going to the cyclists that he almost killed.

 

[Cerberus]

Ego (surgeons have it in spades); it is also possible that the court was going to give some amount of prison and he felt that any was as bad as the max; lastly, it is possible that his attorney convinced him he could win the case

Forgot the last one - it is likely that the prosecutor was not interested allowing him to plead to anything less than the felony charges and those would have resulted in losing his license, and a conviction would also result in a large amount of his estate going to the cyclists that he almost killed.

Sounds likely, given that he essentially confessed twice on scene, once to a police officer and once in his 911 call, the prosecutor didn't really need to offer him to sweet a deal just to get an official confession.

 

[shawnrohrbach]

I was thinking of the outcome of this case while I was riding Sunday morning in East San Diego County (I think the only warm spot in USA right now at 78F) and as I made my way back into heavier traffic and up over the Mission Gorge hill, I was passed by a group of obviously younger and fitter cyclists from a local club, and they proceeded to blow through one, two and then three stop lights, nearly being hit by a truck. Cyclists have it so bad, I know.

 

[Kennf1]

I was thinking of the outcome of this case while I was riding Sunday morning in East San Diego County (I think the only warm spot in USA right now at 78F) and as I made my way back into heavier traffic and up over the Mission Gorge hill, I was passed by a group of obviously younger and fitter cyclists from a local club, and they proceeded to blow through one, two and then three stop lights, nearly being hit by a truck. Cyclists have it so bad, I know.

There's no shortage of idiot cyclists out there. I think a lot of it is just bad mentoring. They ride with a stronger and more experienced rider and see them do it, so they think it's the cool thing to do. I never go through a red light--not because of safety (when no cars are coming), but more to promote the image of cyclists for the cars behind me. If I'm on a group ride I always encourage everyone to stop at stop signs (til we get out of town), and wave the cars on. One courteous stop and wave can restore a motorists faith, and make up for the jackass who just blew the intersection and flipped off the 70 year-old man.

 

[elapid]

There's no shortage of idiot cyclists out there. I think a lot of it is just bad mentoring. They ride with a stronger and more experienced rider and see them do it, so they think it's the cool thing to do. I never go through a red light--not because of safety (when no cars are coming), but more to promote the image of cyclists for the cars behind me. If I'm on a group ride I always encourage everyone to stop at stop signs (til we get out of town), and wave the cars on. One courteous stop and wave can restore a motorists faith, and make up for the jackass who just blew the intersection and flipped off the 70 year-old man.

+1. Well said. Respect is a two-way street.

 

[craig1985]

There's no shortage of idiot cyclists out there. I think a lot of it is just bad mentoring. They ride with a stronger and more experienced rider and see them do it, so they think it's the cool thing to do. I never go through a red light--not because of safety (when no cars are coming), but more to promote the image of cyclists for the cars behind me. If I'm on a group ride I always encourage everyone to stop at stop signs (til we get out of town), and wave the cars on. One courteous stop and wave can restore a motorists faith, and make up for the jackass who just blew the intersection and flipped off the 70 year-old man.

We have a group called the 'crazy bunch', basically it is a take no prisoners style of riding at speeds of more then 40km/h. I generally stay away from them, even though I'm strong enough to stay with them and probably do a turn on the front, because I don't agree with their style of riding. Recently one of them hit a pedestrian who was crossing the road (at the actual point to cross the road) at 40km/h.

 

[Ninety5rpm]

There's no shortage of idiot cyclists out there. I think a lot of it is just bad mentoring. They ride with a stronger and more experienced rider and see them do it, so they think it's the cool thing to do. I never go through a red light--not because of safety (when no cars are coming), but more to promote the image of cyclists for the cars behind me. If I'm on a group ride I always encourage everyone to stop at stop signs (til we get out of town), and wave the cars on. One courteous stop and wave can restore a motorists faith, and make up for the jackass who just blew the intersection and flipped off the 70 year-old man.

Great post.

 

[TheDude]

Rep points for Kennf1

There's no shortage of idiot cyclists out there. I think a lot of it is just bad mentoring. They ride with a stronger and more experienced rider and see them do it, so they think it's the cool thing to do. I never go through a red light--not because of safety (when no cars are coming), but more to promote the image of cyclists for the cars behind me. If I'm on a group ride I always encourage everyone to stop at stop signs (til we get out of town), and wave the cars on. One courteous stop and wave can restore a motorists faith, and make up for the jackass who just blew the intersection and flipped off the 70 year-old man.

+5 or whatever it is up to. Kennf1 gets rep points for this post. While I see more bad drivers, I do agree the percentage of bad cyclists may be higher.

 

[L29205]

It is a very highly charged subject, I will say that most cyclists who have been in the sport for more than 10 years have a fellow cyclist that they know has been killed by a driver.

This fact makes it tough for cyclists to be objective in these type of situations. All of us make bad choices in life, whether it is a group of cyclists who think they own the road or a road rage driver. We have to look at the impact of our actions. If the impact is to cause injury then there is a major problem. A drunk driver is impaired, a teenager texting on phone is impaired, and maybe a tired and stressed Dr could be impared but an impaired person does not make the decisions that this person made. I believe his sentence fit the crime. I highly doubt a drunk driver would have gotten off so easily.

Still, as cyclists we need to be more conscience of our decisions and grow up.

 

[lagartija]

i was reading through and i just wanted to add a couple of things that to my knowledge are not exactly accurate..............
firstly dr thompson is a former er doctor.....he owns a medical records business and has not worked in emergency medicine for several years......so much for returning from his all night er shift

secondly it was on a weeknd morning ,and he was leaving his house, im guessing to catch that all important tee off time.............again not the all night er shift

apparently one of the victims had gone through the rear window of dr thompsons car and had his nose almost completely cut off his face, needing multiple surgeries to replace it on his face,...... now him being a former er doctor one would think he might recognize the severity, yet he told the police dispatcher when asked if anyone was seriously hurt that '' NO they where not , although they will tell you they are''

bikers owning the road ? it seems the sense of entitlement has no bounds, not only the roads but courtrooms and judicial process as well.........
if you are unfamiliar with the mandeville cyn road, lets just say,in this precise area you would be hard pressed to purchase a home for less than $1 million american, and im talking now with the market and housing crunch.......
we are all privileged, certainly dr thompson was, and regardless of the good an individual has done a crime had been committed , would csalapatas still think community service and a fine justifiable had one of the cyclist died, judging from her post im guessing she just might at that