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i*********5
发帖数: 19210 | 1 （旧闻）
January 8, 2010 | 11:05 am
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2010/01/cyclist-sentenced
A doctor convicted of assaulting two bicyclists by slamming on his car
brakes after a confrontation on a narrow Brentwood road was sentenced today
to five years in prison.
Christopher Thompson, wearing dark blue jail scrubs, wept as he apologized
to the injured cyclists shortly before he was sentenced.
"I would like to apologize deeply, profoundly from the bottom of my heart,"
he told them, his right hand cuffed to a court chair.
Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Scott T. Millington called the case
a "wake-up call" to motorists and cyclists and urged local government to
provide riders with more bike lanes. He said he believed that Thompson had
shown a lack of remorse during the case and that the victims were
particularly vulnerable while riding their bicycles.
The case against Thompson, 60, has drawn close scrutiny from bicycle riders
around the country, many of whom viewed the outcome as a test of the justice
system's commitment to protecting cyclists.
Millington said he did not take into account more than 270 e-mails and
letters from cyclists that were filed with the court urging a tough sentence.
The July 4, 2008, crash also highlighted simmering tensions between cyclists
and residents along Mandeville Canyon Road, the winding five-mile
residential street where the crash took place.
One cyclist was flung face-first into the rear window of Thompson's red
Infiniti, breaking his front teeth and nose and cutting his face. The other
cyclist slammed into the sidewalk and suffered a separated shoulder.
At his sentencing hearing at the county's airport branch court, Thompson
cited the Bible in urging cyclists and residents of Mandeville Canyon to try
to resolve their differences peacefully.
"If my incident shows anything it's that confrontation leads to an
escalation of hostilities," Thompson said.
Thompson, a former emergency room physician who described the crash as a
terrible accident, testified during his trial last year that he and other
Mandeville Canyon residents were upset that some cyclists rode dangerously
and acted disrespectfully toward residents and motorists along the street, a
popular route for bike riders.
On the day of the crash, Thompson said he was driving down the road on his
way to work when several cyclists swore at him and flipped him off as he
called on them to ride single file. He said he stopped his car to take a
photo to identify the riders and never intended to hurt anyone.
But the cyclists said the doctor was acting aggressively from the start.
They said he honked loudly from behind them and passed by dangerously close
as they moved to ride single file before he pulled in front and braked hard.
A police officer told jurors that shortly after the crash that Thompson said
he slammed on his brakes in front of the riders to "teach them a lesson."
Prosecutors said Thompson had a history of run-ins with bike riders,
including a similar episode four months before the crash when two cyclists
told police that the doctor tried to run them off the road and braked
suddenly in front of them. Neither of the riders was injured.
Jurors convicted Thompson in November of mayhem; assault with a deadly
weapon, his car; battery with serious injury; and reckless driving causing
injury. | i*****t
发帖数: 24265 | | t********t
发帖数: 5415 | |
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