Blantent Drunk Driving Killing and Cover Up: Not Guilty

MayDay10

This case is huge news in Buffalo. This weathly doctor got drunk at a country club, was texting his mistress while driving drunk, swerved in the bike lane, pulverized a girl with his BMW, didnt stop, pulled his car in the garage, called his lawyer, cleaned tissue and blood off his car which showed significant damage, deleted his texts, which were sent about the precise time of the girl's death, and refused a breathalyzer until blood was drawn 5 hours later (he was still legally drunk).

His defense was the girl smoked some weed a few days ago, might have been suicidal and he didnt know he hit anything.

Not guilty on all charges.

http://www.buffalonews.com/city/columns ... 880299.ece

Dr. James Corasanti got his life back Wednesday night. I wish I could say the same for Alix Rice.

In a verdict that gave comfort to death-and-damage-causing drunk drivers everywhere, a jury found the Getzville physician not guilty of vehicular manslaughter and other felony counts in the crash that killed the teenager last July. He was convicted only of misdemeanor DWI.

Astonishingly, Corasanti was cleared even of the charge that seemed like a slam-dunk — leaving the scene of an accident, resulting in death. Somehow in the jury room, that figurative ball hit the back iron and bounced off.

This was, of course, no game. This was a young girl's life. A life that, sadly, found little compensation in criminal court.

"We were disappointed and, frankly, shocked at the verdict," said District Attorney Frank Sedita.

The boyfriend of Rice's mother was less diplomatic. Hearing the succession of "not guiltys" read by the jury foreman, he dropped an F-bomb and walked out of court in disgust. It was as succinct an indictment of the inconsistencies of our justice system as I can imagine.

The prominent physician who, in the hours after the crash, lamented to neighbors that he had messed up his life and his career, now gets both back. The misdemeanor DWI conviction will likely not cost him a day of freedom. With no felony conviction, Corasanti will keep his medical license.

If there is any justice — and for the community's sake — he should at least have his drinking privileges revoked at every local country club. We cannot afford to have Corasanti turned loose at another Martini Golf Night.

The verdict suggested that Justice is not just blind, but — like Alix Rice — was left bleeding and dying by the side of the road.

The case played out like a Shakespearean tragedy: Prominent-but-flawed physician, after drinking at a country club, hits and kills skateboarding teen who is heading home from her job at a pizza place on a July night. It set up as a clash of extremes of age, income, status in society and — finally and fatally — modes of transportation. Him, in an options-laden BMW 5-series; her on a self-propelled longboard.

But the ultimate tragedy, to my mind, is the way this morality play ended: with no justice done. Sedita said he has never, in 24 years as a prosecutor, been as "astonished" by a verdict.

"We tried the case as best we could," said the district attorney. "I am sorry, on behalf of Alix, that she did not get justice."

Here is what makes this verdict so hard to stomach. To my mind, Corasanti acted in the hours after the crash precisely like a guy who knew he had done something awful, who knew he was drunk when he did it, and who was doing everything in his power to cover his back.

With the help of the best defense team money could buy, he succeeded.

The layered list of Corasanti's post-crash actions that pointed to guilt piled higher than the buckled hood of his BMW.

* He did not stop, even though the impact threw the girl nearly 200 feet, buckled the hood of his car and ripped off the side view mirror. The "ungodly" — to quote a witness — sound brought neighbors from hundreds of feet away out from behind closed doors.

Granted, the BMW is designed to absorb impact. But the notion that he did not know he struck something significant defies belief. I don't care how well the thing is engineered — it's a car, not a tank.

* He drove home and parked the car in the garage and shut the door. Instead of driving back himself, he sent — Corasanti testified she went on her own, his nose somehow not growing even an inch — his wife to check the scene.

* Neither he nor his wife ever called 911. Instead both — separately — calling the family's lawyer, not the sort of move you make if you know you, say, hit a deer.

* In the classic savvy drunk-driver maneuver — Corasanti's late-'90s DWI conviction was not admissible in court — he refused a Breathalyzer test two-and-a-half hours after the crash. Only a court order forced him to submit to a blood draw five hours after he blasted Rice off of the road. Even then, he still was legally drunk.

Prosecutor Jim Bargnesi, in Tuesday's closing argument, laid out Corasanti — who, as a gastrointestinal expert, understands the speed with which the body absorbs alcohol — for refusing the Breathalyzer test.

"The defendant said 'No, thanks' to the best way in the world of proving he was sober," noted Bargnesi. "A sober person being arrested for being drunk and killing a kid with his car would have been begging police for a Breathalyzer test. Instead, he did the opposite."

* Corasanti's wife, barely an hour after Rice was hit — and with the blood- and tissue-splattered car in the garage — played dumb with an Amherst cop who rolled up.

To me, the post-crash actions all screamed a single word: Guilty.

I sat Tuesday through nearly four hours of closing arguments. The defense, in their portion of it, made one bigger-picture argument that I found digestable: That Corasanti did not see the dark-clothed girl crouched on her board.

Still, his every action in the hours after showed he knew he hit not just something, but someone. And instead of stopping to help, and taking the consequences of being drunk at the scene, he ran and hid. As prosecutor Bargnesi put it, "he only cared about himself ... his life and his career."

Well, Corasanti got all of that back Wednesday night. His life. His career. But not, I bet, his conscience.

If there is any justice, it will not let him rest.

Mamasan23

This fucking sickens me. The haves win again. The only thing to hope for is that karma gets this asshole eventually!

madtowndave

That is seriously fucked up

DS1119

He's from my hometown. Italian's have deep roots. Let's just say the family is connected and leave it at that.

RKCNDY

Karma will get him back in one way or another. That is beyond messed up.

MayDay10

Buffalo is a small city.

People in his neighborhood made it pretty well known that he had a large party last night to 'celebrate'.

pjhawks

no knowing all the facts sure looks like the jurors are fucking morons. hope they can sleep well at night (wonder how those OJ jurors sleep these days).

MayDay10

a juror spoke today. Still doesnt make me understand the decision.

http://www.buffalonews.com/topics/dr-ja ... 881178.ece

Nixon said photos of the 18-year-old longboard skater reminded him of his daughter, while her riding brought to mind another of his children.

"Her actions reminded me of my son," the father of five said.

But he said the jury tried to keep emotion out of their deliberations after the draining monthlong trial. He called his jury experience "gut-wrenching."

He left the Erie County Courthouse for home in tears after the verdict.

"We did our very best," he said. "We took the law and tried to apply it to this case. It was a very emotional case. We tried to keep emotion out of it as best we possibly could."

"We tried to our best to weigh the evidence and the testimony," Nixon added.

Nixon said Corasanti's day and a half of testifying was not as pivotal to the outcome as the lawyers involved in the trial have indicated.

"He seemed like a very nice man," Nixon said of the soft-spoken Corasanti. "He made a good impression on the stand. But I don't know if I believed everything he said. Some people did."

Nixon also said he had doubts about the testimony of Mark Rowland, the Getzville motorist who testified about what he saw moments before Corasanti's car struck Rice.

Prosecutors called his testimony very damaging to Corasanti.

Rowland testified, for example, that Rice was highly visible as she skated along the side of the road. Rowland said he saw Corasanti's approaching car partially in the bike lane where she was riding her longboard.

Prosecutor James F. Bargnesi called Rowland a "phenomenal" witness.

Nixon was not so impressed.

Rowland had previously testified in front of a grand jury, which indicted Corasanti on the five felony charges.

"His grand jury testimony didn't quite jibe with what he said on the stand to us," Nixon said.

How did trial jurors react to that?

"It did make a difference," Nixon said.

Jurors acquitted Corasanti on all felony charges related to the death of the teen last July in Amherst. Rice was on her way home from her job at a Hopkins Road pizzeria when Corasanti's car struck and killed her at about 11:20 p.m. July 8 on Heim Road.

Jurors acquitted Corasanti of second-degree manslaughter, the most serious charge he faced, and second-degree vehicular manslaughter. The jury also acquitted him of two evidence-tampering charges: deleting text messages from his mobile telephone and removing the victim's blood and body tissue from his car.

Corasanti also was acquitted of leaving the scene of an incident without reporting, resulting in death.

"That was a hard thing for us, too," he said of the leaving-the-scene acquittal.

"The defense team poked holes in everything," Nixon said.

Nixon said he questioned how much of the impact Corasanti could hear inside his BMW, given the size of the car and its engineering. It is possible he might not have heard the impact, even though neighbors did, Nixon said.

Nixon said prosecutors did a good job trying the case.

"But they never addressed the sound-proofing of the car," Nixon said. "That's the reasonable doubt."

Also, George Meinschein, the mechanical expert who testified for the defense, "was believable," Nixon said.

Meinschein called the BMW's impact with Rice a "light hit."

Also, the damage to the dark blue car's hood was more noticeable when you looked at the hood when standing in front of the car. But when standing behind the hood in the courtroom, closer to the driver's perspective, "I could not tell the hood was buckled up from back there," Nixon said.

With doubts about what Corasanti could hear and see from inside the car, jurors acquitted him on the leaving-the-scene count.

What's more, the defense's accident reconstruction expert raised reasonable doubt about where Rice was on Heim Road when Corasanti's BMW struck her. More of her longboard was on the road than the prosecution contended, that expert testified.

David Liske, a principal associate at Liske Forensic Professionals of Fonthill, Ont., testified Amherst police were "absolutely wrong" in how they reconstructed the fatal incident.

Liske testified that Corasanti was traveling 39.9 mph on Heim Road in Amherst when his BMW struck Rice.

Liske's testimony cast doubt on the Amherst Police Department's calculation that Corasanti was driving 46 to 52 mph when he fatally struck Rice.

Heim Road has a posted speed limit of 35 mph.

"I thought he was more professional," Nixon said of Liske.

norm

not sure any group of people could be dumber than the oj jury but these folks might take the top prize...mr nixon is brain dead...how is able to form speech?

hedonist

pjhawks wrote:

no knowing all the facts sure looks like the jurors are fucking morons. hope they can sleep well at night (wonder how those OJ jurors sleep these days).

Hell yes (both counts).

I really hope this piece of shit - and his wife by proxy - get theirs, and good.

josevolution

If he killed my Kid i'm killing him i would not even think about it :evil: ...