Reckless driving case ends in plea

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Miami Herald

Reckless driving case ends in plea
A former Miami-Dade police officer ended a reckless driving case involving the death of a pedestrian by pleading no-contest.
Posted on Sat, Aug. 25, 2007
BY SUSANNAH A. NESMITH
[e-mail]

A former Miami-Dade police officer pleaded no contest to reckless driving Friday for running over a pedestrian who died, ending a 7-year-old case that had repeatedly been appealed. She was credited with time served -- 40 days.

Audria Gensler was convicted of vehicular manslaughter in 2002 but an appeals court ruled prosecutors should not have presented evidence that Gensler was out of her assigned patrol zone and had taken an extra long meal break when she was called to back up another officer on a disturbance call.

Assistant State Attorney David I. Gilbert had argued that's why she was speeding, driving her patrol car as fast as 97 miles an hour without lights or sirens.

Prosecutors dropped the manslaughter case Friday in exchange for Gensler accepting the plea, which also required her to promise never to work as a police officer again.



Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/miami_dade/story/214719.html

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From an earlier trial, in 2002:

Web posted Saturday, November 2, 2002
Police officer gets three years in death of pedestrian
Associated Press

~snip~
Gensler was convicted last month of vehicular homicide for the May 4, 2000 accident. Under state sentencing guidelines, she could have been sentenced to anywhere from nine years, three months in prison to 15 years.

"You're not a criminal in the true sense of the word," Bagley told Gensler after the defendant tearfully apologized in court to the victim's family. "But you did commit a crime."

The accident took place as Robin Marie Ivey, 41, was trying to cross South Dixie Highway. Investigators found Gensler was going 77-100 mph, heading to assist another officer on a non-emergency call out of her work zone when she hit Ivey.

Ivey, who went through the police car's windshield, died at the scene.
(snip/...)

http://www.polkonline.com/stories/110202/sta_pedestrian.shtml

[AX10]

1. I am pleasantly suprised to see a DA go after a cop in such a manner.

Should should be jailed, but at least she will never have the protection of the law again, since she can no longer be a cop.

[youngdem]

2. Will also be penniless from legal bills and the inevitable civil suit

I am sure that the plantiff's attorney will be sure to mention repeatedly the time-served jail sentence, and they will take it out of her ass accordingly.

Can some one please tell me by the way how it is that in the age of manditory minimum sentences that someone can get time served of only 40 days for killing someone in a reckless manner?

[AX10]

3. Because she's a cop. Police are the government, they get...

better treatment than we commoners.

And I am glad to see her penniless.