Thread: Suspect in fatal hit-and-run near Lantana has been cited 5 t

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/loc...sfla-news-palm

By John Coté
Staff Writer
Posted November 21 2005


The first time it was speeding. Later, there were $2,000 in damage and minor injuries. The fifth time, someone died.

Daniel Rodriguez Mendoza was cited at least four times in Palm Beach County for driving without a license before he pulled a U-turn on Sept. 25 and stopped his Chevrolet Blazer in the middle of Military Trail west of Lantana to look for his cell phone on the road, according to officials and court documents.

Two motorcycles slammed into the back of Rodriguez Mendoza's vehicle, leaving one person dead and two others seriously injured.

"They caught him three or four times and did nothing," said Pierre Nadeau, 49, of West Palm Beach, whose right foot was nearly severed in the crash. "Why didn't they send him back to his country?"

Rodriguez Mendoza's ability to repeatedly wind through the courts, being fined no more than $271 each time for driving without a license, happened because of a flawed system for dealing with chronic unlicensed drivers, legal professionals say. Information gaps, a strained court system and inconsistent and relatively weak laws hamper that system, some contend.

"There are so many faces to this issue that have all now converged on this system that appears to be inept," said County Judge Cory Ciklin, who sees many of the cases brought before him as a first appearance judge. "All the stars have aligned here, and now you're dealing with issues involving death."

Rodriguez Mendoza, 21, began his saga in May 2003, when court records show Lantana police cited him for driving 61 mph in a 35 mph zone and not having a license.

By his fifth citation for driving without a license, he had given police three names, including Daniel Rodriguez and Roberto Rodriguez, court and arrest records show.

The undocumented immigrant pleaded guilty to a crash that caused $2,000 in damage, was cited in another case for driving the wrong way on Lantana Road and was cited for improperly backing up in another crash that caused $600 damage and minor injuries to another person, court records show.

In that case, Rodriguez Mendoza failed to appear for his arraignment and a judge issued an arrest warrant.

He is being held without bail on suspicion of causing a hit-and-run crash involving death and driving without a license when causing death in the wreck that killed Kimberly Jo Dahmer, 42.

Dahmer was thrown from the back of her husband's Harley-Davidson motorcycle after it rear-ended Rodriguez Mendoza's 1988 Blazer. Steve Dahmer, 42, suffered a broken pelvis, femur and other injuries, Nadeau said.

Dahmer and Nadeau were both charged last week with driving under the influence during the crash, but witnesses told investigators there was no way the impact could have been avoided, a prosecution spokesman said.

Rodriguez Mendoza's public defender could not be reached for comment, despite calls to the office. Rodriguez Mendoza faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted, but faced far less in his earlier cases.

Under state law, driving without a license is a misdemeanor punishable by up to 60 days in jail. Palm Beach County State Attorney Barry Krischer successfully pushed legislation about 10 years ago that allows prosecutors to charge repeat offenders who drive on a suspended license with a felony punishable by up to five years in prison, but no similar provisions exists for repeat offenders who simply have no license.

"You can get 50 of those charges and it's never anything more than at second-degree misdemeanor," Ciklin said. "With no license, it's pretty much a blank check. You can do it as often as you want and there are no repercussions."

Law enforcement officials requested the suspended license legislation, but those officials did not similarly request an increase in penalties for chronic unlicensed drivers, said Krischer's spokesman, Michael Edmondson.

Judges "have routinely relegated these types of cases as the very lowest in terms of importance," while prosecutors focus their limited resources on serious felonies like sexual battery, cocaine trafficking and violent crimes, Ciklin said.

"If they are going to drive without a license regardless of the consequences -- absent the Legislature making this a life felony -- you're not going to stop it," Edmondson said.

Ellen Roberts, head of the State Attorney's Office Traffic Homicide Division, said, "The law has no teeth in it. I don't think that the courts especially look at that as `the crime of the century,' when in reality it is, when you look at the implications."

Lack of information about Rodriguez Mendoza's record may have contributed to his getting a relatively light sentence -- one day in jail and $166 fine -- the third time he pleaded guilty to driving without a license, Ciklin said.

Rodriguez Mendoza went before different judges on his first three cases, and gave a different name the third time he was cited, according to court records. He lacked a driver's license to confirm his identity.

Judges use three databases maintained by different agencies that are not connected and sometimes have different information, Ciklin sad.

"The [court] clerks have this problem all the time," Ciklin said. "If an officer gets a letter wrong in the spelling of a name, or if the person gives them a wrong name, it takes years before that ultimately catches up with that person and it is cross-referenced."

Ciklin said he is now taking a hard look at repeat offenders' records.

"In certain cases I have refused to accept a plea agreement that didn't include jail time for repeat offenders," the judge said. "I think other judges just like me are realizing this has become something of an impediment that the judiciary has to at least take a look at and see if there is something we can do."

http://www.theledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/ ... 50384/1004

Published Wednesday, April 5, 2006
WEST PALM BEACH
Illegal Immigrant Gets Jail in Death

An illegal Mexican immigrant was sentenced to six months in jail for his part in the death of a Lantana woman killed in a motorcycle accident last year.

Under a deal accepted Monday, Daniel Rodriguez Mendoza, 21, pleaded guilty to driving without a license and leaving the scene of an accident that resulted in a death.

He will remain jailed pending deportation.

Kimberly Jo Dahmer, 42, and another motorcyclist crashed into the back of Mendoza's 1988 Chevy Blazer after Mendoza came to a stop in the road amid oncoming traffic as he reached for his cell phone.