Legally Blind Driver Kills Rider

This is a story we have been following in Texaas for a few months.

Judge rejects blind driver's plea deal in motorcyclist's death
By Tommy Witherspoon Tribune-Herald staff writer

Thursday June 17, 2010 Email Print
A state district judge rejected a plea bargain Wednesday morning that would have placed a vision-impaired motorist on deferred probation in the December traffic death of motorcyclist Richard Craig Schroeder.

Judge Ralph Strother of Waco’s 19th State District Court said he would not accept the plea deal in the manslaughter case involving 39-year-old Trena Evette Mitchell, who is legally blind.

Mitchell, after consulting with her attorney, Phil Martinez, withdrew her guilty plea. The judge set an Aug. 17 trial date.


Trena Evette Mitchell will go to trial Aug. 17 for a collision she had with a motorcycle while driving. Mitchell is legally blind.
Jerry Larson/Tribune-Herald“After reviewing the presentence report, I just felt this was one that needed to go to trial,” Strother said after the brief hearing, which the judge moved up after learning that more than 1,000 motorcyclists planned to ride to Waco to show support for Schroeder.

The judge said he changed the date of the hearing to avoid “a spectacle.”

Strother’s office has been inundated with more than 1,300 letters from motorcycle enthusiasts who urged him not to place Mitchell on deferred probation, as recommended by prosecutor Hilary LaBorde, when Mitchell pleaded guilty May 17.

Mitchell, who has no driver’s license and has been cited at least twice before for driving without one, had four children in the car with her when she turned in front of Schroeder’s motorcycle at Martin Luther King Boulevard and East Lake Shore Drive.

Two of the children were injured, one severely. Prosecutors also have charged Mitchell with injury to a child.

Schroeder, known to his biker friends as “Hat Trick,” was on a charitable mission that morning, rounding up toys to give children whose parents are in prison.

His wife, Michelle Schroeder, attended Wednesday’s hearing but declined comment afterward.

Before recessing the hearing, Strother wanted to make sure Mitchell was not driving anymore and placed that restriction on her as a condition of her continued bond.

Martinez assured the judge that Mitchell has not driven since the incident with Schroeder, despite what he called false reports that she had been seen driving since then in the Waco area.

Mitchell and her husband moved out of McLennan County because of persistent and threatening phone calls and harassing letters, Martinez said, adding that whoever those reports were about, it wasn’t Mitchell.

LaBorde, who also has heard from motorcyclists since offering Mitchell deferred probation, said she understands that there are very strong emotions running through the case.

“I believe the probation department did a good job doing their presentence investigation, and I believe the judge did what he believed to be the right thing,” LaBorde said. “The prosecution doesn’t get to talk to the defendant before we make a recommendation, and I think that had a lot to do with today’s decision.”

Paul Landers, a 53-year-old chef from Georgetown, serves as lieutenant national commander of the US Defenders, a motorcycle rights activist group. He said Wednesday he is responsible for putting out the “call to action” among his fellow riders to write letters to the court that denounced the deferred plea offer.

“I think it is a little premature to be doing high-fives,” he said of Strother’s decision. “I am glad that the judge did his job and at least is looking at the law. We asked him in the letters what he would do if it was his son or daughter. Would this plea bargain fit the crime? I don’t think so.

“We are not after this woman. This is not a personal attack,” Landers said. “But as motorcycle riders, we don’t want to be treated as a subculture or a different demographic group. We are just asking for the same rights as people who drive automobiles.”



http://www.wacotrib.com/news/crime/Judge-rejects-b...

The problem is that these people get caught driving with out a liscence or with a supended liscence and only get a slap on the wrist..
My 10 year old daughter was killed by a driver with a suspended liscence.. he had been stopped several times including just the week before and just given a warning...He was also uninsured and a known crack head on methadone..
Since my daughters death was ruled an accident due to lack of witnesses all he got was 30 days for driving with a suspended liscence..
It took a loss of life before they even enforced that.. if only they would of enforced the law a week prior...
When I was caught driving my dump truck before I got my CDL.. I was threatened with a year in jail and had to go to court to fight criminal charges... In my case no one was hurt..I was insured and a liscensed General Contractor... I was pulled over because a few pieces of pea gravel was on my tail gate..
Not saying I was right to be driving without a CDL but I had just bought the truck and was getting used to it before my driving test..
Just another perfect example of how out of balance our justice system really is..
When laws should be enforced they are not... stupid laws that really shouldn't even exist get enforced at the fullest extent allowed.

Sorry about the daughter Blake. The system continues to be so screwed up that this woman actually receives financial assistence for being blind and takes the money. Those payments should be cancelled immediately as she obviously feels she can see well enuough to drive. Fraud and vehicular homicide??? Flames my ass to read this crap.

If nothing else make those payments to the family of victim while her ass rots in jail awhile..

Let's see.....
Kill a rider,
Get 12 years,
Out in 3 on probation,
and then comes the MF'n race card!!!!!
I'm glad jail time was given, but the rest of this shit really pisses me off!
Kiss my ass!!! Fuck the race card, you kill you go to jail bitch!

http://www.kxxv.com/Global/story.asp?S=13000110

It never ceases to amaze me how some people can turn everything into a case of discrimination....Whenever they have no other defense for their actions then it is still someone elses fault!

Guess I'm just getting too old to be 'tolerant'. "Racist" is the word now used when you're a moron and can't make any kind of logical argument.

Wish I had read this earlier. It makes me very sad to see people think they can get away with anything because it isn't ever their fault. The blind person getting free money from the state is bad enough but then to be driving? With children in the car? What the heck does she think she was doing? I agree that the laws that are real are ignored and the ones that are worse than stupid are enforced fully. Sucks to see our ever increasing socialist government getting worse and worse. as put by Steppenwolf, "America where are you now?"