Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Bonfire of Inanities

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Local Rich Suburbanite Runs Over Thai Cook with Mercedes SUV

She thought he was only a construction cone.  She had gotten lost and couldn’t pick up the kids from the Katy Perry concert at the Excel.  Figures her kids would be at a Katy Perry concert, doesn’t it?  So she was driving around, saying she was lost, even driving by the ramp on which she hit the ‘cone’ again.  Odd?  She called her husband to make the concert pickup instead.  She had been on her cell phone at the time of the accident, according to police.  An empty bottle of Mike’s Hard Lemonade was in the car seat.  The next day, her daughter testified she would tell the police if her mom didn’t come forward and admit she might have hit this Thai cook.  So Amy Senser did, after getting a lawyer.  Her husband believes her when she told him she hit a construction cone.  Witnesses say the cones were past the location where the accident happened.  The Thai cook had his flashers on. 

Shades of Tom Wolfe’s “Bonfire of the Vanities,” in which a rich hedge fund broker in a luxury car runs over a poor black kid on a freeway ramp in New York, and speeds away. 

Unfortunately, this whole thing has the air of a cover-your-ass lie from a cute-looking rich suburban housewife with high-paid attorneys.  Who will be believed?  Certainly not the dead man. May she go to jail.

May 3, Senser Verdict.  Convicted on two of three charges - not reporting an accident, and leaving the scene of an accident, but not negligence.   This is a 'split the baby' verdict.  She got off on a charge she should have been convicted on.  Take a look at the diagram of the accident site:

http://www.startribune.com/newsgraphics/148764555.html

The victim was thrown 25 feet in front of his car.  The 'construction cones' were another 25 or 30 feet after that spot.  To confuse their location is disingenuous.  The disabled car was pulled far to the right with its blinkers on.  She was driving 55 mph on an 'off'' ramp!  To hit a guy changing his tire, you'd have to be far to the right on the exit ramp - not even in the middle of the ramp, let alone on the left.  Senser also attended the Katy Perry concert (an adult going to a pop-tart concert for teenagers and young adults!)  Did she drink there?  Get high?  She left the concert without picking up her kids, who were also there, who she'd promised to drive home.  Why?  Then she changes her mind 5 miles later driving west on 94, gets off at Riverside, and ... the black hole starts.  Amy disappears.  To hit this guy, you'd have to be careless, distracted, inattentive, something. Looking at this diagram, there is no other conclusion. 

Red Frog
April 25, 2012

2 comments:

  1. Why does it "figure" they were at a Katy Perry concert? Because they would like pop music? Why wouldn't she have a lawyer? Does the victim have a name other than "this Thai cook"? How do you know what really happened? Your personal biases say a lot more about you than the case.

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  2. Actually, Amy Senser was also at the Katy Perry concert. Then she left - without her kids - drove to Riverside Avenue, then decided to go back, then got 'lost,' then went home. Katy Perry? Upscale pop for shallow listeners. My kids were going to First Avenue at this time. Sure she should have a lawyer - but not before she told the police she was driving that car. I think she got 'lawyered up' immediately.

    The guy's name was Anousone Phanthavong. But do you really give a shit? None of us knows what REALLY happened. But the jury has to decide. As do human beings. She has all the earmarks of a liar.

    At bottom, it is a prima facie case that she killed the guy, while others drove around him without hitting him. She is guilty of negligence, at minimum, otherwise how do you explain the death? Unless he ran out in front of her car. And she has not testified to that.

    Rich people rarely pay.

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