Saturday, November 6, 2010

For Great Justice

Wealthy folks are gods:
EAGLE, Colorado — A financial manager for wealthy clients will not face felony charges for a hit-and-run because it could jeopardize his job, prosecutors said Thursday.

Martin Joel Erzinger, 52, faces two misdemeanor traffic charges stemming from a July 3 incident when he allegedly hit bicyclist Dr. Steven Milo from behind then sped away, according to court documents.

...

“Felony convictions have some pretty serious job implications for someone in Mr. Erzinger's profession, and that entered into it,” Hurlbert said. “When you're talking about restitution, you don't want to take away his ability to pay.”
Were I Martin Joel Erzinger - or anyone else in his position - I might be making cost and benefit calculations for the next victim and buying them a cycling vacation in Colorado.

(Also via MetaFilter, which because they use quotation marks in their headlines gets unfair boosts in RSS sorts. Maybe I'll have to reverse the order or something.)

9 comments:

ifthethunderdontgetya™³²®© said...

It's good to see our Justice System coming clean. Sunshine is the best disinfectant, and we're scouring out all the non-wealthy peoples.
~

Hamish Mack said...

If Martin Joel Erzinger, 52, had been drunk he would have got the Congressional Medal of Honour.

mikey said...

It'd make a helluva novel if the good doctor spent the next three years planning and executing the murder of Martin Joel Ezringer in such a fine, subtle fashion that everyone would KNOW he did it but would be unable to prove it.

If I wasn't such a spoiled, lazy fuck kickin it while I rake in that sweet Unemployment Insurance swag I'd write that bad boy.

Meanwhile, W/V finally explains what happened that night in that tunnel in Paris all those years ago: cokedi

Big Bad Bald Bastard said...

Felony convictions have some pretty serious job implications for someone in Mr. Erzinger's profession

So does the poor judgment that would lead one to take off after hitting a cyclist.

I hope Dr. Milo takes him to the cleaners.

Substance McGravitas said...

It's so weird that that's the only justice he can get now: he has to try to do that, and the article seems to say that Milo's unconcerned with the dollar amount.

I wonder what Erzinger's employers at Morgan Stanley think. They're an ethical operation, right?

J— said...

A comment at the Vail Daily article sent me looking for the case of the bib switchers. Hit and run, not felony; mountain biking bib switch, felony.

zombie rotten mcdonald said...

interestingly, it seems felony convictions have no repercussions if you are a Republican politician.

mikey said...

Hey, don't overly freak out over the word 'felony'. The first one is terrifying, and everyone says your life will be shit forever and ever. But then, after that, pretty much EVERYTHING you do gets prosecuted as a felony. It's sort of the prosecutorial basis for three strikes. So you get hit with a few more felony convictions.

You have to accept that there's some things you just aren't going to be allowed to do, work for the government, get a security clearance, run for public office. But beyond that, life really does go on.

Which is good, as too many people have to live with unfair and unreasonable criminal convictions. Erzinger is not one of them. If it cost him everything, he should still lose both kneecaps...

Kathleen said...

barf.