Fox News used to run a regular segment called “stupid criminals.” If it were still on the air the subject of today’s Oregon drunk driving blog would definitely be a candidate.
According to The Oregonian, Aaron Arrell killed a woman in an Oregon fatal hit-and-run accident in March, and was apprehended in large part because he tried to cover his tracks by having his wife phone police to report their van – the vehicle involved in the accident – stolen. “Had they not called, it may have gone unsolved,” the paper quotes a Multnomah County prosecutor saying.
When police caught up with Arrell – based largely on the description of the vehicle that his wife had given them – he tested for blood alcohol at almost twice the legal limit, according to the paper. It also emerged that he was driving on a suspended license, and had been cited twice previously for doing so in the weeks prior to the Portland drunk driving fatality.
The Oregonian reports that Arrell pled no contest “to criminally negligent homicide, failures to perform the duties of a driver to an injured person and drunken driving.” He was sentenced to 50 months in prison as a result of the Oregon drunk driving conviction. The fact that this was also a Portland hit-and-run accident made the charges all the more serious.
It is good to know that such an irresponsible motorist is going to be behind bars. We have here a driver with a suspended license who went out anyway and, by his own admission, drank at two bars that evening, and who then left the scene of the accident caused by his own recklessness. There is no word, according to The Oregonian, on whether the victim’s family plans to seek further justice in the civil courts. Regardless of how they come down on that very painful decision, it is important that other families in similar situations understand that the court system is here to help defend their rights. An experienced Portland drunk driving victims’ attorney can offer invaluable advice at such moments, helping families see beyond the immediate trauma, and helping them to protect their rights.
The Oregonian: Drunken driver who tried to cover up fatal crash ends up helping Portland police track him down, gets 4 years in prison