Liquor Dealer

FLANDREAU, S.D. — Rep. Bill Janklow is facing a possible jail term and the end of his political career after a jury on Monday convicted the congressman of all charges in the traffic death of a motorcyclist.

A fixture in South Dakota politics for 30 years, Janklow seemed stunned when the verdict was read after a five-hour deliberation. He left the courtroom, got in a vehicle driven by his son and left the courthouse without uttering a word to a horde of reporters.

OK! He fucked up. Will they do anything about it?

Janklow could get up to 10 years in prison on the manslaughter charge at his sentencing on Jan. 20. The House ethics committee will investigate and could recommend a resolution reprimanding Janklow, censuring him or even expelling him, though expulsion is rare.

If you think back to all of the other like events in our past - Teddy Kennedy's fiasco while driving drunk and killing the girl at Chappaquiddick.


During the month of June in 1969, Edward Kennedy was involved in a horrible car accident. He had been driving back from a party on Chappaquiddick, Massachusetts, and had driven off the edge of a bridge. Luckily, he was not severely injured; however, Mary Jo Kopechne, a woman who was in his car, was killed. She was a 29-year-old blond secretary in Washington D.C., who worked for Senator Robert F. Kennedy and Senator George Smanthers. Edward Kennedy's wife was home with their children and had not attended the party.

The accident was not reported until eight hours after the car had sunk to the bottom of the river. On the following Monday, Kennedy was charged for leaving the scene of the accident. In Massachusetts, a manslaughter charge is always given when someone leaves the scene of a deadly accident. This was the second time that Kennedy had been in a fatal accident; five years earlier he had been in a serious plane crash and had broken his back.

Kennedy, who was 37, said that he was simply in shock, and that was why he had not called the police.


Are these people immune from the laws that govern the rest of us? If they hang Janklow is it because he isn't named Kennedy? Kennedy basically murdered Kopechne - went home and sobered up and didn't mention this until he had his ass covered! Why are our lawmakers immune from the laws they pass?


Not an official edit LD, just fixed your color tags

Sparhawk

FLANDREAU, S.D. - Rep. Bill Janklow was convicted of manslaughter Monday for speeding through a stop sign and colliding with a motorcyclist. Janklow later announced that he will resign from Congress.

"I wish to inform you that because of present circumstances, I will be unable to perform the duties incumbent on me in representing the people of South Dakota as their U.S. representative," Janklow wrote in a letter that he said was to be sent to House Speaker Dennis Hastert on Tuesday.

"Therefore I wish to inform you that I will resign from the House of Representatives, effective January 20, 2004."

That is the same date Janklow is scheduled to be sentenced on his manslaughter conviction.

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pocon1

This time Janklow did not get away with it. If you notice, the article said he did not get a ticket after he became governor. Thanks to all of the state troopers who failed to ticket him before and ended up costing someone his life.
BTW, your loaded comments against Kennedy are a joke. Many politicians are protected from the law, as are many celebrities, professional athletes, and other law officers. It doesn't make it right, but it happens. Why aren't you questioning why Rush Limbaugh is not sitting in jail? The amounts of drugs he had at various times would easily qualify him as a drug dealer. What about George Bush's drunk driving arrest? So please quit injecting your anti-democrat comments into an important larger topic about why politicians should or should not be free from the laws that they are supposed to uphold.

james t kirk

Wow, tough break for this other guy.

Had he been drinking, or did he just make a colosal error?

Kennedy should have been tossed in jail after Chappaquiddick. He is scum in my books. I seem to recall that he attended some sort of breakfest engagement the next day having not yet reported the girl's death.

Liquor Dealer

Excuse me???

Ted Kennedy's Driving Record - List of Traffic Offenses
- Ted Kennedy had a record of serious traffic violations. Their nature formed a pattern of deliberate and repeated negligent operation. Particularly bothersome was a June, 1958 conviction for "reckless driving."

- On March 14, 1958, Deputy Sheriff Thomas Whitten had been on routine highway patrol outside Charlottesville, Virginia, when an Oldsmobile convertible ran a red light, sped off, then cut its tail lights to elude pursuit. A license check revealed the car belonged to Edward M. Kennedy, a 26-year-old law student attending the University of Virginia. Kennedy had previously been fined $15 for speeding in March 1957.
- Whitten was on patrol at the same intersection a week later, he testified, "And here comes the same car. And to my surprise, he did exactly the same thing. He raced through the same red light, cut his lights when he got to the corner and made the right turn." Whitten gave chase. He found the car in a driveway, apparently unoccupied. Looking inside, he discovered the driver, Teddy Kennedy, stretched out on the front seat and hiding. Whitten issued a ticket for "reckless driving; racing with an officer to avoid arrest; and operating a motor vehicle without an operator's license (Mass. registration.)"
- Kennedy's attorneys were able to win numerous postponements, but eventually he was convicted on all charges and paid a $35 fine. Court officials never filed the mandatory notice of the case in the public docket, however, and Kennedy's name had not appeared on any arrest blotter. Instead, a local reporter discovered the case when he spotted 5 warrants in Kennedy's name in a court cash drawer.

- Three weeks after his trial, Ted Kennedy was caught speeding again, and still operating without a valid license.

- In December 1959, Kennedy was stopped again for running a red light and fined $10 and costs. In Whitten's view, "That boy had a heavy foot and a mental block against the color red. He was a careless, reckless driver who didn't seem to have any regard for speed limits or traffic ordinances."


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- The offenses in Virginia had occurred on Ted Kennedy's Massachusetts driver's license, but mysteriously neither the Registry of Motor Vehicles nor the office of probation in Cambridge had any record of the out-of-state convictions. Had it been revealed at the inquest, the Senator's history of negligence and reckless driving would have been further evidence to support a charge of manslaughter in the Chappaquiddick accident.

~ Senatorial Privilege by Leo Damore
- Senator Kennedy's driver's license had expired on February 22, 1969 (nearly 5 months before the accident at Chappaquiddick) and had not been renewed.
- Although driving with an expired license was only a misdemeanor, it did provide the evidence of negligence needed to prove a manslaughter charge in the death of Mary Jo Kopechne.
- The license problem was "fixed" by officials at the Registry of Motor Vehicles, under the direction of Registrar Richard McLaughlin, before the legal proceedings began.

HarmlessRabbit

I don't see the point of brinking up Teddy here. You may as well whine about O.J. going free, it's about as relevant.

Janklow got caught, he's likely going to jail. This time, nobody went free.

Good game.

Phaenx

He says he was having a diabetic reaction from not eating that day. The prosecutor was able to prove that not eating was a concious decision to cause harm or whatever and he got charged with manslaughter or so I've heard.

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"I went shopping last night at like 1am. The place was empty and this old woman just making polite conversation said to me, 'where is everyone??' I replied, 'In bed, same place you and I should be!' Took me ten minutes to figure out why she gave me a dirty look." --Some guy

Liquor Dealer

OJ is is irrelevant - Kennedy is nothing more than a scoff-law scumbag - murderer might be more appropriate but that is irrelevant also - the point...why are lawmakers basically immune from the laws they enact?

Ustwo

Its not just lawmakers.

My wife was hit by a post office semi-truck from behind at a red light. She was stopped and the moron didn't see the red light or her. She was injured and the car was totaled. If a private company did that they would have a owed good deal of money, but since the post office likes to pretend they are private until they are sued, we barely got the blue book value of the car that was totaled.

The government does its best to exempt itself from many of its own regulations, but if its not good for the gander, why is it good for us geese?

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MSD

The general consensus here seems to be that lawmakers should not be immune to prosecution. Does anyone disagree with this, and why? Kennedy should have been convicted, and his coverups should have been prosecuted for obstruction of justice.

Anyone who kills another person becausae of negligence should be seeing serious jail time.

2wolves

Should have been tried? Yes, definately. As for result of the trial...... you get the justice you can afford in this country. We KNOW this.

Now, does anyone have solutions for the blatantly broken system or is this going to be a finger pointing exercise where the Falumpgh party is so obviously more evil than the Niewangers?

2Wolves

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ashap

I think that guy got what he deserves. The motorcyclist didn't deserve to die just because Kanklow was in a hurry. No one should be above the law. I hope they give him some serious time for his crime.

rogue49

Umm...can we please try to bring up points within the last 5 years.
It helps to keep things in perspective.

Shit, I'll even give you TEN years.

smooth

Actually, according to the interviews of defense witnesses, the arresting officer, and medical staff, the prosecutor was able to prove that Janklow actually had eaten earlier in the day, tried to lie to get out of responsibility, and that the accident was due to him speeding (even though the jury was not allowed to know about his 12 earlier citations for speeding).

Phaenx

Hang him high then.

__________________
"I went shopping last night at like 1am. The place was empty and this old woman just making polite conversation said to me, 'where is everyone??' I replied, 'In bed, same place you and I should be!' Took me ten minutes to figure out why she gave me a dirty look." --Some guy