Bobby Cann Updates: Ryne San Hamel Pleads Guilty, Receives 10 Days in Jail

Jason Jenkins at ActiveTrans is helping to coordinate community response.  If there is any chance you can attend proceedings, please reach out to him: 

jason@activetrans.org.

 

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Permalink Reply by Bob Kastigar on January 31, 2017 at 11:16am

Maurice, I should have said:

So if the defendants' lawyer doesn't like the sentence offered he can appeal.  But if our lawyer, the States Attorney, doesn't like the sentence offered there is no appeal right.  Seems somewhat one-sided to me.

Permalink Reply by Maurice on January 31, 2017 at 3:03pm

If the defense doesn't like the offer at the 402 conference, they can go to trial but, if they lose the trial, the judge almost certainly will slam them with a much harsher sentence than the 402 offer. This is called a "trial tax." Of course, if the defense were confident that they would win at trial, they wouldn't have asked for a 402 conference in the first place, so it's pretty much take-it-or-leave-it for both sides.

Permalink Reply by Bob Kastigar on January 31, 2017 at 3:46pm

The prosecution didn't ask for the 402 conference, the defense (San Hamel, Sam Adam) asked for it.

Permalink Reply by Skip Montanaro 0mi on January 31, 2017 at 7:12am

IANAL, but my thinking is that the judge wanted to get this case off his docket. If he decided on a harsher sentence (say, 1 or more years), the likelihood of the defense accepting the deal would go way down, and he'd be stuck with even further delays caused by an actual trial. San Hamel has a felony on his record now. I imagine that will be hard to expunge. What are the terms of his probation? Will he be subjected to random drug or alcohol tests? Will he lose his license for all or much of that time? What further consequences might he face if he violates the terms of his probation?

Permalink Reply by Bob Kastigar on January 31, 2017 at 9:21am

Skip is right on this.

Everybody's got a boss, telling them what to do.

Timothy Evans, Chief Justice of the courts probably got on Judge Hooks for taking so long, taking so much time, and there were other cases standing in line that needed to be adjudicated.

Kim Foxx, the States Attorney for Cook County probably got on whoever was the Assistant States Attorney prosecuting the case.  She asked what was taking so long, taking so much time, when there were other cases that needed prosecution.

Sam Adam was getting paid by the hour (I wonder how much he made on this) and he could take as long as he wanted - no rush.

I'm just agreeing with Skip, I don't have a solution.

Permalink Reply by mike w. on January 31, 2017 at 9:38am

The only things that even slightly look like justice in this case are the expense of a high-priced defense lawyer ($$$$), months of sweating out possible outcomes for Mr. Hamel, and a felony record (no big deal so long as he has current employment, it would seem.)

Mr. Hamel has to face The Man in the Mirror every morning. One could hope that he has a hard time doing that for the rest of his life. 

But somehow, i have to wonder if it will bother him in the least. We can't know. We can only hope that he doesn't do it again and remember that the world is full of Sam Hamels, and a cyclist's and pedestrian's life is worth very little.

Permalink Reply by David Barish on February 1, 2017 at 1:34am

Assuming the family is pursuing a civil case I am less troubled by the result. There is a felony on the driver's record. Nothing can bring Bobby back. I have a hard time urging a longer sentance and greater deprivation of liberty in most cases. I find this especially true with our current President. The driver should pay in a way that actually compensates Bobby's family in some way. They would be no better if the driver rots in jail for a longer time. Does 10 days seem too low? Yeah, but the pound of flesh means much less to me than the pound of cash.

Permalink Reply by Bob Kastigar on February 2, 2017 at 1:52pm

David, remember that this was an injury to society, not just an injury to Bobby Cann's family. 

 

Compensation to the family will come after the civil trial.  The criminal trial, which just concluded, is to address the needs of all of the rest of us.  We were very much injured by this terrible crime.

Permalink Reply by Bob Kastigar on February 1, 2017 at 1:56am

A Mundelein woman was sentenced to seven and a half years in prison Tuesday for the death of a 22-year-old man in an early morning drunken driving crash in Libertyville.

Amanda Auld, 24, was sentenced after pleading guilty last year to one count of aggravated driving under the influence of alcohol resulting in a death.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/lake-county-news-sun/crime/ct...

The person killed wasn't on a bike, so a more severe sentence is justified.

Permalink Reply by mike w. on February 1, 2017 at 4:25am

Justice is a crap shoot. And, to quote what a local cop once told me, "They do things a little differently in Lake county."

Also, she'll likely have an appeal, and failing that there'll be time off for good behaviour and the probability of parole.

Permalink Reply by Maurice on February 1, 2017 at 6:30am

Very little chance that she will appeal, as she pleaded guilty.

Permalink Reply by ad on February 2, 2017 at 6:05pm

Not that I disagree, but there's statements in the article that suggest Auld had already received suspended sentences for other drug/alcohol offenses (so potential past DUIs), and she likely got the book thrown at her here.  She had also already spent 365 days in jail, which means she obviously didn't have a lot of money behind her defense since she couldn't make bail.  

Leaving aside that Lake County has much more conservative judges when it comes to sentencing overall, if anything this highlights how money impacts the judicial system.  If you can afford the big name attorney, you more often than not end up getting off much, much easier.  

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