Who says there’s no such thing as good news?
A jury in Fanta Se has convicted Jacob D. Brown of Moriarty in a March 2018 road-rage incident that left three cyclists with broken bones after he first exchanged words with, then backed his vehicle into, a group of riders.
Sheriff’s deputies took Brown into custody following the verdict. He could be looking at more than four and a half years in the hoosegow when he faces sentencing next month.
Props to everyone who fought for this victory over senseless violence, nearly two years in the making. Let’s hope it sends a message to anyone else who thinks they own the road along with the automobile.
A spokesman for Seniors on Bikes told The New Mexican via email: ““We are thankful that Santa Fe citizens are supportive of the rule of the rule of law and that cyclists are not considered targets on our roads. We hope everyone stays safe: motorists, pedestrians and cyclists.”
Mad Blog Media 
Crazy that it took 2 years to convict.
Khal will know more of the deets, I’m sure. I seem to recall that it took a good long while to persuade the constables to bring charges against this gent.
• Late update: Yep: He originally got only a traffic ticket. It took indictment by a grand jury months later (July 20) to get this prosecutorial party started.
The gears of justice turn slowly, especially for those using human-powered gears
First comment on this article writes that the riders were rude. Whatt’a maroon! Of course old guys on bikes being rude is sub-optimal, but implying punishment by vehicular bone crushing is appalling. I guess knuckle-dragging troglodytes have evolved to acquire basic keyboarding skills.
Chris Mechels is best known for being a crotchety old man who shits on everybody in the comments section. Don’t feel singled out.
O’G covered about what I know. Initially, IIRC, the cops gave him him a ticket for a traffic violation and he claimed the cyclists attacked his car from the rear, kinda like a squadron of ME-109’s coming up on the tail of a B-17. There was a shitstorm of outcry.
But this delay seems to be the norm for any traffic fatal in New Mexico. Unless you are caught slumped over the wheel with a bottle of vodka in one hand and a quart of beer in the other, its considered an “accident”. You might get a ticket for littering if you drop the beer bottle outside the car.
So he used the “deer hunting out of season” strategy. “My gawd, that deer is charging!!”
My 4th grader’s coding club has been playing with various programmable robots, and the one lesson all of the girls have come away with is, this shit is hard, and we barely trust robots to turn the lights on and off, so making a split second decision to brake or gun through a yellow is decades away. And yet, autonomous cars can’t do any worse on the open roads than we’re doing, can they?
Our district lost a first grader to a texting driver last month. Kid was in the crosswalk, doing the right thing. The period of “let’s all do better” lasted maybe five minutes before everyone went back to illegal u- turns in the middle of the drop-off lane.
Hard to believe he didn’t get away with the old “I thought I was pushing the brake pedal” defense, not to be confused with “The sun was in my eyes” or the ever-popular “They came outta nowhere!” They ought make him do a perp-walk to the crossbar hotel through a gauntlet of angry cyclists who could whack him with their frame pumps – if they had ’em.
He may yet get away. Who knows what kind of sentence he’ll get? If the max is nearly five years, there must be some wiggle room in there. Time served and a few months’ bro’-bation wearing an ankle bracelet on his accelerator foot? Who knows? Dumping a few cyclists with your auto is generally considered littering.
That said, the local cycling community has been on top of this one and I expect they’ll stay there.
Our preschool lost a mom, t-boned by a dude who was observed to be gunning it while running a red. Used the “sun in eyes” excuse. Seemed like the obvious ruling should have been, well, then shouldn’t have been accelerating through the red. But it got him off. We are incapable of logic these days.
Also many appear to be incapable of personal responsibility/accountability. As a veteran lawyer once told me: “We have a legal system, not a justice system.”
Well, yeah. Look at the fine example(s) currently emanating from the taxpayer subsidized housing at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
Maybe what this state needs is an Emergency Car Removal Protective Order. I see far more road rage than gun rage in these parts. And a lot of the gun rage arrives with assistance of those car keys.
You don’t need a lot of time at the range to learn how to draw and fire an auto. Sumbitches have a better spread than a 12-gauge, is what.
Hey Patrick, what ever happened to Memori Hardwick, the meth-addled driver who killed Matt Trujillo? Matt was about to marry the sister of a good friend of mine when he got wasted down your way.
https://www.abqjournal.com/129413/woman-with-dark-history-gets-9-years.html
She must be outa the slammer by now.
https://www.rapsheetz.com/newmexico/doc-prisoner/HARDWICK_MEMORI/492365
Good. We’ll have to see the sentence. The minimum wasn’t mentioned. Another story or possibly opinion RINGSIDE SEAT
“Ex-Rio Arriba sheriff gone rogue has done enough time.” makes me discouraged about justice for victims.
Here is the story as of 2018 when the guy was indicted.
https://www.santafenewmexican.com/news/local_news/moriarty-man-accused-of-hitting-cyclists-is-indicted/article_c13dd0d5-081c-58bc-b7e7-9eea4304b058.html
People in cars are just jealous…
https://www.insider.com/people-who-bike-to-work-live-longer-says-study-2020-1
Meanwhile, speaking of road-related issues that should be generating rage, and not just among motorists, who in holy hell thought it would be a good idea to run buses down the middle of Central? And why are they not being indicted, arrested, convicted, fined, imprisoned, tarred, feathered, and otherwise pilloried?
Walking, driving, or riding, methinks we have some very imprudent people. Be ever vigilant … it’s your butt on the line.
Maybe they convinced Albuquerque with San Francisco? Of course out there, they are used to it.
Confused, not convinced. Not sure how that happened.
I’m confused – are the citizens of this city too stupid to watch for traffic when they cross the streets? Why are these buses singled out for the abuse, it’s not like a bus is some strange contraption from outer-space that showed up there for the first time?
As a rider that was bounced off the hood of a Cadillac, I salute the jury and the prosecutor that set one yahoo a strong message. If 44 mags weren’t so heavy vigilante justice would be back in minute.
I’ve thought about a Ruger LC-9 but so far have sworn off packing heat. Well, for now.
https://www.santafenewmexican.com/news/local_news/santa-fe-police-try-to-calm-business-operators-after-violent/article_002689c6-4201-11ea-8273-67386d4d3ed0.html
I have been carrying a Kahr 380 in a Sneaky Pete stealth holster since I was mugged. High quality, smaller and lighter than anything else I’ve found. It was sufficient to back down the ex-local cop nutcase who buzzed, then threatened me one night. Saw his pic in the paper later when he got a year for shooting and killing a kid in a car wash. Someone just released a 380 round that passes the FBI certification tests. I’ll move to those when they make it to the stores.
I really don’t want to become an agent of natural selection, but I do believe in carrying the tools I’ve needed on rides in the past. (2 tubes, 2 or more patch kits, multi tool, gun, etc.) Looks like the price of entry into the mugger game is lower out there, to judge by all the knife crimes in that article. Be safe.
Looked at an LCP. Tiny compared to my 9’s, which are too ponderous to carry on a bicycle without looking like well, someone packing serious heat. My problem with a 380 is that I know that sooner, rather than later, I will put a 380 into a 9mm or vice versa and undoubtedly at a bad time. Maybe they ought to anodize the brass green or something.
If it gets that bad around here I’ll probably move back to BombTown.But although I am not averse to self defense, I tend to agree with Pat O’Brien: if I have to pack while riding, the fun has gone out of the deal.
I do have a hunch that the muggers have gotten the idea that Fanta Se is easy pickings. Gun owners in the People’s Republic of Santa Fe are looked down on like knuckle draggers by the local Progressives, and I think the crooks know it and see it as green pastures.
And he huffed, and he puffed …
https://www.cnn.com/2020/01/29/politics/us-border-wall-falls-over-high-winds/index.html
Carry a gun while riding? If I need to do that, I quit. No joy there.