Vehicle Related Cases

Location

Defendant(s)

Date of Alleged Crime

San Diego County, CA	Jose Aguado Cervantes	Oct 22, 1999
(Federal Case) Jose Aguado Cervantes, a Mexican national and Tijuana resident, spent more than three months in a U.S. jail after border agents stopped him on his entry into the U.S. and found 119 pounds of marijuana hidden in the bumper of his car. Cervantes, 67, had bought the car three months earlier at a U.S. auction. The car had been seized four months prior to the auction in connection with its use in smuggling illegal immigrants. "I put 100 percent of my trust in the American government," he said in Spanish. "I never imagined they would sell me a car loaded with drugs." Cervantes subsequently filed a civil suit against the U.S. based on negligence, and the U.S. settled the suit for $275,000. (E&B) (LA Times) (Cervantes v. USA) [2/09]

Hartford County, CT	Michael Cyr	Feb 28, 2005 (Manchester)
While intoxicated, Michael Cyr had remotely started his car and sat in the driver's seat with the driver's side door open. He was subsequently arrested for “driving while intoxicated,” although he never drove the car, nor did he put keys in the ignition. After unsuccessfully trying to dismiss the charge, Cyr made a conditional no contest plea to the charge, which allowed him to challenge it later. He was sentenced three years imprisonment with two of the years suspended, three years probation, and a $2000 fine. In 2007, an appeals court reviewed the conviction. It noted that the state had produced no evidence that Cyr had the car's ignition keys on him or that Cyr's car was capable of motion without the keys. It then reversed the conviction, citing insufficient evidence that Cyr was operating a motor vehicle under the meaning of the Connecticut “driving while intoxicated” statute. (Connecticut v. Cyr) [1/08]

Newaygo County, MI

Larry Souter

Aug 25, 1979

Larry Pat Souter was convicted in 1992 of the 1979 murder of 19-year-old Kristy Ringler. One evening, Souter had met Ringler at a bar and became friendly with her. When the bar closed at 2:20 a.m., the two left with several others to continue the party at the home of Anna Mae Carpenter, which is located off of M37 (State Route 37). While everyone else was inside, Souter and Ringler went out into the front yard of the house and became amorous. At some point Ringler decided to go home, walking northbound along M37. Souter followed her for 20 to 25 feet, trying to persuade her to come back and get a ride, but he soon abandoned his efforts and returned to the party.

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Stark County, OH	Christopher Bennett	May 29, 2001
Christopher Bennett was charged with vehicular homicide after the van he was in crashed and killed a fellow occupant, Ronald Young, 42. The crash occurred on Baywood Street in Paris Township. Neither Bennett nor Young were wearing a seat belt before the crash. Bennett pleaded guilty to the charge after a witness report and the state crash expert, Trooper Toby Wagner, indicated that he was the driver. After Bennett's amnesia cleared in prison, he realized that he was the passenger. Bennett requested that the blood from the van be tested and such tests appear to exonerate him. The van had a driver's side airbag and Young's injuries were consistent with hitting the airbag. Bennett's injuries were consistent with hitting the windshield. Another witness has come forward who said Young was the driver. Bennett's conviction was overturned in 2006, and he faces a possible retrial. (Akron Beacon Journal) [9/06]

King County, WA	Michael Lee Sipin	Mar 6, 2000
Michael Lee Sipin was an occupant of a BMW Z3 sports car that crashed into a tree and threw both occupants from the car. Sipin suffered brain damage while the other occupant, David Taylor, was killed. Sipin, who had a blood alcohol level of .11, maintained that he was the passenger, not the driver. The prosecution used a computer program named PC-Crash to simulate the crash and it convinced jurors to convict Sipin of vehicular homicide. Sipin's conviction was overturned on appeal in 2005. The appeals judge faulted the state's PC-Crash expert witness for not accounting for multiple impacts in the crash and the changing dimensions and angles inside the vehicle. (State v. Sipin) [7/05]

Manitoba, Canada	Cody Klyne	Sept 4, 2006
Cody Klyne was convicted of dangerous driving and flight from police. His conviction was based on the eyewitness testimony of two police officers who only momentarily saw the car's driver. In Aug. 2007, the Manitoba Court of Appeal ruled that the officers' identification was too unreliable to support Klyne's conviction, and overturned the conviction. (Winnipeg Free Press) (R. v. Klyne) [1/08]

Mexico

Rivera & Calderón

Jan 24, 2002 (Ensenada)

Francisco Rivera Agredano and his brother-in-law, Alfonso Calderón León were convicted of drug trafficking after 37 pounds of marijuana was found in the door of a Nissan Pathfinder SUV that Rivera was driving. Calderón was a passenger. The two were stopped at a checkpoint near Ensenada, which is more than 70 miles from the U.S. Border. Rivera, a Tijuana printer, had bought the car four months before for $2,600 at a U.S. government auction in San Ysidro, CA. It had previously been seized when 59 pounds of marijuana was found inside its gasoline tank.

Rivera had crossed the U.S.-Mexican border five times without incident after he bought the car. Under Mexican law the two men were presumed guilty. They were convicted after a Mexican judge rejected their claim that U.S. customs did not thoroughly search the car. The two were sentenced to five years in prison. The U.S., not only ignored their pleas for help, but fought to keep exonerating evidence from their attorneys. After a year in prison, the convictions of the two were vacated after Rivera's lawyer was able to convince a Mexicali appeals court that the moldy marijuana found inside the Pathfinder was too old to be of resale value.

Rivera was later awarded $551,000 in a suit against the U.S. government, and may get an additional sum for costs incurred by his U.S. lawyers. Calderón could not sue because because of a Supreme Court precedent barring lawsuits against the federal government for incidents arising outside the U.S. U.S. District Judge Emily Hewitt ruled that she did not know how customs missed the contraband, but she rejected the claim advanced by Rivera's lawyers that the Customs Service does not thoroughly search vehicles because doing so could cause damage them and decrease their resale value. In legal documents, U.S. attorneys said the government did nothing wrong and that the onus is on the buyers to make sure the cars are drug free. According to Teresa Trucchi, attorney for Rivera and Calderón, "I don't think 'as is' to the normal consumer means, 'If I buy it and it's stuffed full of drugs that I'm unaware of and I get arrested, that's my problem.'" (SD Union-Tribune) (CBS) [10/08]