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As I recall, the Lake County DA let the Statute of Limitations lapse on this, effectively making Perdock immune from prosecution (i.e., the "old boy" network protected its own; business as usual in Lake County). Unfortunately, this means that no matter how many folks sign this petition Perdock will never be charged for Ms. Thornton's death. I don't like it any more than anyone else, but that's the way it is.
The most Perdock could reasonably be charged with is Involuntary Manslaughter; max four year sentence, so a three-year Statute of Limitations (according to FindLaw). This was in fact all discussed at some length back when Mr. Dinius was on trial. It stinks, but so do lots of things.
That incident was a miscarriage of justice and resulted in at least a wrongful death, if not murder.
Dinius paid the price that Perdock should have; he lost his job.
+1
Fortunately, Mr. Dinius was acquitted of the most serious charges at trial. So while he did unfairly suffer for Perdock's actions, it wasn't nearly as bad as it could have been.
If Perdock was doing 95 MPH on the road while under the influence and ran a red light and killed somebody, how would that be dealt with? It seems like this would compare quite well to doing doing 40 - 60 MPH at night, while under the influence, and without maintaining a proper lookout.
I don't get what Dinius did wrong other than having .12 instead of .08 BAC. There have to loads of people out there boating right now with a BAC of .12. Would each of them get 3 years in jail for boating under the influence if they were caught? Dinius was at the helm and there is no evidence of any wrong doing on his part, especially since the boat was hit from the stern. The captain may have been at fault for not having the navigation lights on as it was originally thought. But it is nearly certain that at least the cabin lights were on and most likely the navigation lights were on too.
How do you go to jail for 3 years for being out boating with a .12 BAC while not being at all at fault for the accident?
edit: I guess he didn't go to jail, but how could he even be accused of such a thing?
edit: I guess he didn't go to jail, but how could he even be accused of such a thing?[/QUOTE]
Simple answer:
"Home cookin' by the local constabulary and DA protecting their own.
The court and jury got it right, but what a long haul for Bismarck. May he achieve at least some satisfaction and recompense from his civil suit against the County.
This thread has been started at least three times, and it's all moot. The statute of limitaions on the charge that could have been made against Perdock (with the eveidence that was collected) passed years ago. If you read all of the history of this case, it's clear that Perdock was protected from the outset. He was not given a PAS test, his blood wasn't drawn for testing until hours after the crash, other deputies refused to take statements from witnesses seeing the nav lights on the sailboat, etc. The whole thing stank so much that a reporter from ABC tv in San Francisco went on a veritable crusade digging up the dirt on Perdock, the investigating officers, the DA, and even the Judge that held the case against Dinius over for trial.
Unfortunately, there's literally nothing that can be done about it.
Who is Rory Kremer and Change.org? I fully support the effort and signed the petition. However, creating on line petitions with no game plan seems futile. Eventually, people will just burn out and become jaded. Just because technology is easy to use, doesn't mean it should be used. Would Rory be circulating the petition if it required him to obtain actual signatures? As others have indicated in this thread, many have gone to bat on this issue without results, and and several years have passed. Is there an actual plan here (I.E., any reason to believe that if DOJ receives X number of signatures from around the country, they will do anything.)? Followed all the links and didn't find any.
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