Illinois State Trooper Matt Mitchell pleaded guilty April 17, 2010, to two counts of reckless homicide and aggravated reckless driving for the November 23, 2007, accident which killed two teenage sisters: Jessica, 18, and Kelli, 13, and which injured others. In return for pleading guilty, he was sentenced to 30 months probation.
You can read the full story at the St. Louis Post Dispatch, here.
What is interesting about this case is the extent of misbehavior on the part of Mitchell which resulted in the crash and what some people believe was the attempt by the authorities to cover up the damage: Mitchell was doing everything wrong, driving 126 mph, and receiving and sending email seconds before the crash and talking on his cell phone just before that. He was responding at the time to an incident and was advised before the accident that the incident had been resolved. For some reason his car video camera was not operating and the only reason his speed was discovered was information from the “black box” from his car. The accident report itself was never released to the public.
If you don’t believe that police are prosecuted in a much more lenient manner than ordinary citizens recall also that Mitchell had two previous on-duty crashes and a $1.7 million settlement against him on another case. Note that according to the St. Louis Post Dispatch article: “Mitchell became the first Illinois police officer convicted of reckless homicide for a wreck that happened on duty, said St. Clair County State’s Attorney Robert Haida.”
RichardWanke.Com 