Look! An Investigative Report!
- The truck driver who struck and killed a 4-year-old boy on a city
street earlier this year was driving with a THC level more than three
times the legal limit, prosecutors said this week. James Bernstein, 53,
also had cocaine metabolite in his system at the time of the crash,
according to the allegations.
Bernstein, driving a 2021 dual-wheeled Dodge Ram 3500 pickup truck, made a right-hand turn from 82nd Street onto Harper Avenue around 4:30 p.m. on June 2, officials said. He allegedly struck four-year-old Xyaire Askew, who had run into Harper Avenue while playing with friends.
After striking the boy, Bernstein “drove over the victim’s chest and head” when he “went to pull over” at the scene, prosecutors said in a detention petition. Xyaire was pronounced dead at Comer Children’s Hospital about 30 minutes later.
Bernstein consented to chemical testing, a Chicago police report said, and the Illinois State Police laboratory determined that his blood contained cocaine metabolite and a THC level of 18.4 nanograms per milliliter, officials said in court filings.
The testing was done by the ISP laboratory and not contracted out (hopefully).
This was on the ABC site the same day:
- There is fallout following an ABC7 I-Team report exposing suspect lab tests in marijuana driving-under-the-influence cases.
Metro Chicago-area prosecutors are in the weeds trying to figure out what to do, how many cases are damaged, which defendants are wrongly locked up and who may have to be released.
Former McHuouslyenry County States Attorney Patrick Kenneally is echoing what undoubtedly happened all day Friday in prosecutors' offices across metro Chicago: lawyers going through files from old cases, checking whether blood tests were conducted for marijuana at the University of Illinois Chicago Analytical Forensic Testing Laboratory.
So obviously, there are at least some investigative reporters out there - where they've been hiding we have no idea. But now, thousands of cases involving impaired drivers are in jeopardy of having convictions vacated, all while we can't even drive with our windows down any more due to the near constant smell of weed wafting through the air.
Labels: corruption, crime
posted by SCC at 12:03 AM
10 Comments:
Regardless of how much THC you have in your system, if you strike a child and then run over their chest and head afterward while pulling over, you're likely impaired and shouldn't be driving. Similarly, if your BAC is below the legal limit, but you still show signs of impairment, you can still be DUI. It's not a magic number that universally applies to everyone, and being below that number doesn't magically make you able to drive completely safely. The tests are conducted AFTER someone has been arrested based on other probable cause that they are impaired. Potentially flawed test results don't negate the other signs of impairment that led to the arrest.
No matter....just sue the city...they'll pay.
Gotta have that weed.
The ABC article literally says nothing about what is wrong with the results?? How do you write an investigative report and just say tests are inaccurate but say nothing about how?
He must have had a route through Michigan. The new buffalo pot shops are chock full every single day. And there's a lot of them.
The only time I smell that skunk weed is when I'm walking down the street and cars are passing by. Obviously, every one of those drivers is driving impaired. But, that marijuana tax money is so good!
Florida dodged a bullet by not legalizing that shit. Big talking point was Don’t become Chicago.
Shame the parents didn't teach little Xylene or Xylophone or what ever his name was not to run in to the street.
I saw the case on CWB.
The kid looks like a baby pic of the driver.
Rumor has it Gov JB Lizzo smokes some dietary bud to keep his caloric rate down and his munchie rate up...
Here in FL..... Totally agree with the post about smelling skunk weed everywhere in traffic... Even the fucking interstate where you are going 80+mph.... Fucking Cheech and Chong at least had Thai stick or something besides those damn vape pens
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