Colorado: Morgan Stanley financial adviser escapes felony charges for hit-and-run 'because it could jeopardise his job'
Bob Hurt
In the commentary below, Ken Smith explains how prosecutors extend the protection of sovereign immunity to wealthy criminals, merely by refusing to prosecute.
Now I have this question: WHAT can ANYONE do to teach the prosecutor a lesson? Ask the governor to fire him? Take his boss to task (who do you think told him to give the hit and run crook a pass?)? Sue him? File a complaint against him for obstruction of justice? Who would prosecute it?
We need a popular movement to demand that citizens can prosecute criminals on their own, in the event a grand jury won’t force the Government attorney to do it. Meanwhile, we MUST communicate our outrage to public officers, as Ken Smith has done.
Dear District Attorney Hulbert:
As a Republican precinct committeeperson and an avid cyclist who has spent many days on the roads of Summit County, I can scarcely contain my outrage at the travesty of justice reported in Saturday's Daily Mail:
Morgan Stanley financial adviser escapes felony charges for hit-and-run 'because it could jeopardise his job'
A financial manager for wealthy clients will not face charges for a hit-and-run because it could jeopardise his job, it has been revealed.
Martin Joel Erzinger, 52, was set to face felony charges for running over a doctor who he hit from behind in his 2010 Mercedes Benz, and then speeding off.
But now he will simply face two misdemeanour traffic charges from the July 3 incident in Eagle, Colorado.
His victim, Dr Steven Milo, 34, is meanwhile facing 'a lifetime of pain' from his injuries.
(emphasis added)
A more compelling case for felony prosecution for hit-and-run is scarcely imaginable. A bicyclist is uniquely vulnerable in an accident like this, and in many cases, his or her very life depends upon receiving prompt medical treatment. Moreover, it appears on the face of it that Erzinger was lying: no jury would ever believe that he didn't know that he hit a bicyclist from behind. He fled from the scene, and that is a felony.
Even more outrageous is the rationale that YOU reportedly offered for failing to prosecute Erzinger: because it could jeopardize his job.
Justice in this case includes restitution and the ability to pay it,' said District Attorney Mark Hurlbert.
He said Erzinger, a private wealth manager who manages more than $1billion in assets at Morgan Stanley Smith Barney in Denver, is willing to take responsibility and pay restitution.
'Felony convictions have some pretty serious job implications for someone in Mr. Erzinger's profession, and that entered into it,' he said.
Id. (emphasis added).
A felony prosecution is going to jeopardize just about anyone's job, for cry-iy! If Kobe Bryant had been prosecuted for rape, it would have hurt his career. And what about the Aussie kid who threw a snowball at one of his co-workers? http://www.summitdaily.com/article/20071213/NEWS/71213005&parentprofile=search -- forget that student visa. Or the two women who cheated during the Leadville 100? http://abusivediscretion.wordpress.com/2010/05/08/da-mark-hurlbert-charges-two-top-women-mountain-bike-racers-with-felony-criminal-impersonation-for-using-false-bib-number-in-leadville-trail-100-competition-snowball-prosecutor-strikes-again/ Felony criminal impersonation?!? Who did they hurt? And then, there's the mystery as to how you avoided prosecution of the local Republican version of Richie Rich, former state treasurer candidate Mohammed Ali Hasan. You can't tell me that Erzinger couldn't have made the poor doctor whole from his assets alone.
I'm a Certified Public Accountant. Am I entitled to one free felony in Summit County? Or is this just a benefit extended to banksters who have powerful friends in the Denver Rustlers? Is this a courtesy you only extend to Republican friends of Larry "Silverado" Mizel? Or did you simply take a bribe?
Whatever happened, Sir, to equal justice under law? The notion that no man is above the law, and none are beyond the reach of its protection? Even the execrable Judge Nottingham got it:
This republic is planted thick with laws, from coast to coast. Not every one of us agrees with every one of those laws. There are people who disagree strongly, who think they can disobey the law whenever it suits their purpose. There are people who disregard the laws. …
The law in a republic such as this is in danger and cannot stand if a large portion or a significant portion of the citizens of that republic come to believe that it is not evenly enforced. That is what is meant by equal justice under the law. It is not that you get the same sentence as everyone else, of course. It is that you are treated equally.
If it is perceived that there is one law for the rich and one law for everybody else, the law will ultimately fall into disrespect.
Al Lewis, Nacchio: A Man For All Seasons, Denver Post, Jul. 27, 2007 (transcript of Judge Nottingham’s lecture on morality to former Qwest CEO Joseph Nacchio at sentencing).
Clearly, in Summit County, there is one set of laws for the rich and powerful, and another for the rest of us. You are not morally fit to discharge the grave duties you have been entrusted with. I implore you to resign, and to never again disgrace a Republican ballot with your presence. One Dan Maes was more than enough.
Sincerely, Ken Smith
cc: interested bloggers and news outlets;
bcc: various Republican officials
P.S. to Greg Moore: It is a shame that I had to read about this scandal in the London Daily Mail -- it would be really super-deluxe if we had an actual newspaper with real reporters in this town. (The Denver Rustlers' Censorship Rule is obviously in full force at the ComPost, as evidenced by its sanitized report: http://www.denverpost.com/search/ci_16536503 Even the Summit Daily News got it right! Dean Singleton's friends can't be exposed like this, now can they?)
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