Australia: Only a $214 fine for lawbreaking leading to death

A "Hell-Ride" cyclist who knocked down an elderly pedestrian who later died faces a maximum $214 fine. The St Kilda man, 30, who hit James Gould as he walked across a pedestrian crossing, will be charged on summons with disobeying a red light. Mr Gould, 77, died in hospital after being struck as he crossed Beach Rd at Mentone on August 26.

The cyclist was riding in a high-speed unofficial Saturday bike race called the Hell Ride. Senior police said after the tragedy the rider could be charged with conduct endangering life. But the Herald Sun believes legal advice indicated there was little chance of a conviction. Instead, the rider faces a $214 fine.

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Update: The Cory Maye case becomes further unglued

Previous post here on this case was on March 9th

One of the Covington attorneys noticed early after they took the case that the autopsy on Ron Jones reported that Jones had written a phone number on his hand. The team hired a private investigator, and after some leg work, managed to track down the guy who owned the number at the time of the raid. Gold. The number eventually led to the informant who tipped Ron Jones off to the raid on the Cory Maye-Jamie Smith duplex. The guy's a real piece of work. I can't go into too much detail right now, but the story the informant told Covington's private investigator is dramatically different than the description given in Ron Jones' affidavits for the search warrants. The details between the two accounts aren't even close. I'll get into the rammifications of the discprencies a bit later. For now? Well, here's where it gets fun.

After the guy realized the investigator was working for the defense team, he clammed up. When Bob Evans -- Cory Maye's lead attorney -- called to tell him that if he didn't talk, they'd compell his testimony with a subpeona, the informant flipped out. He called Evans, and left a rant on Evans' answering maching that, when Evans played it for me the other night, blew my mind. It's a 45-second clip of absolute fury, brimming with f-bombs, anger, hate, and -- by my count -- at least four utterances of the word "nigger."

THIS is the "trustworthy" informant whose tip led to the raid on Cory Maye's home. An unabashed bigot. Makes you wonder how many other black people have been raided, arrested, and imprisoned based on this guy's tips. Not to mention how many ignoramouses like him are still turning people in down in Mississippi -- or, for that matter, anywhere else.

I'll have much, much more on this after the September 20th hearing. Needless to say, for the moment, this new development shoots a mile-wide hole in the already suspect case against Cory Maye. It also ought to have repercussions well above and beyond Cory's case. Every person this guy has ever put behind bars deserves to have his case reexamined. More broadly, all of this is yet more evidence in the sad, growing, and already overwhelming sea of evidence against the use of shady informants in door-busting drug raids.

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(And don't forget your ration of Wicked Thoughts for today)