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THERE ARE NO WORDS! "Why A Convicted Drunk Driver Is Suing His Victims"

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In what many would call the biggest act of chutzpah of the last decade, a Florida man who pleaded guilty to committing DUI manslaughter in 2007 after police found drugs in his system is now filing a lawsuit against his dead victims for being the real cause of the accident.

David Belniak is apparently having second thoughts about his plea after spending a few years of a 12 year sentence behind bars. Belniak, who never spoke in his own defense during his trial, is being represented by his sister, an attorney, so legal fees are apparently not an issue.

Attorney Debra A. Tuomey, in making her brother's filing, said the Florida Highway Patrol's investigation of the case was a "government sanctioned assassination against one individual." Her suit suggests that the police and prosecutor's office were driven by Belniak's history as a DUI driver and convicted drug dealer rather than the facts of the accident .

According to the Tampa Bay Times, the lawsuit seeks to get the victims' relatives to pay Belniak, now 38, for his "pain and suffering ... mental anguish ... loss of capacity for the enjoyment of life" and the medical bills he got as a result of a crash he pleaded guilty to causing.

"This is ridiculous," Georgette DeFranco, 48, a relative of the victims, told the Times. "You caused it. You accepted guilt. How can I or anybody in this family be responsible for your injuries?"

DeFranco, the Times reported, lost her mother, Linda McWilliams, 66; her sister, Denise Bassi, 50; and her brother-in-law, Gerard Bassi, 51, in the crash. DeFranco's stepfather, Ray McWilliams, was injured but survived, but died last March at age 68 allegedly, in part, due to the after effects of the accident. The Bassi couple lived in Connecticut and were visiting Florida for the holidays.

Authorities said Belniak, at the time of the accident on Christmas day 2007, was driving between 75 and 85 mph when his pickup smashed into the back of McWilliams' Chevrolet Tahoe. The SUV crumpled. Gerard Bassi died at the scene. Denise Bassi died in surgery that day. Linda McWilliams was taken off life support a week later. Authorities said Belniak had alcohol, Xanax and evidence of cocaine in his system.

A record of drugs and bad driving

Belniak had a history of driving infractions, having faced DUI charges twice before, according to the Times. Belniak also served a previous prison term for possessing and trafficking GHB, commonly known as "the date rape drug."

So how could Belniak possibly be charging that the accident was the fault of the victim?
The suit claims McWilliams was in the left turn lane and "because of his sheer negligence" McWilliams abruptly changed lanes, "making it impossible" for Belniak to avoid the collision. The suit also accuses McWilliams of "possibly" being under the influence of medication at the time of the crash.

Tuomey has said that her brother accepted a plea deal on the three counts of DUI manslaughter and other charges because he was facing a possible sentence of life in prison.

Maureen M. Deskins, the Tampa attorney representing the estate of Linda and Ray McWilliams, told the Tampa Bay Times the lawsuit is "gut-wrenching" and that the relatives are "stunned."

Anyone would be, especially given Belniak's history on top of the details of the accident.
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http://autos.aol.com/article/why-a-convicted-drunk-driver-is-suing-his-victims/
 
PottedMeat said:
it's not like he's got anything to lose

won't this get tossed out at the first hearing or whatever?
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If the judge actually lets this go to court I will drive down to Florida with an assortment of ass-beating devices.

Will pick up anybody along the way who wants to split gas money with me.
 
And the next time somebody is going off about not letting prisoners file lawsuits, here will be a prime example of why not.
 
Though I doubt it, the possibility exists that he's Innocent. This is the problem on focusing on his Record, it doesn't prove anything as to what happened in this instance. It will be very difficult for him to win this Case regardless.
 
sandorski said:
Though I doubt it, the possibility exists that he's Innocent. This is the problem on focusing on his Record, it doesn't prove anything as to what happened in this instance. It will be very difficult for him to win this Case regardless.
Click to expand...

That is the thing that sucks about legal systems in general.
It is not to say that the US legal system is more Fail that any other, but rather it is simply the nature of the beast in terms of how legal systems will always force us to accept the wrong ending at times.
It's not to say we should accept them when we find out, but often times there is no way to to overturn certain evidence or show a situation in a different light, or other such issues... and sometimes nobody either thinks the verdict was actually wrong, or nobody has the right evidence to suggest otherwise.

In this case, knowing the ability of other drivers, I wouldn't doubt if it is far from being even the first time someone was wrongfully handed the fault simply because that individual would also have a DUI, whereas the vehicular accident had been caused by the sober person (or the person not drunk enough to warrant a test based on apparent characteristics).
However, considering he accepted a plea deal, and because of his history, I highly highly doubt he would even get a fair shot at stating his case for this one.

I do thoroughly believe the person at fault for an accident is the only person who should even be tested for intoxication, but intoxication can also play into the situation by changing what should be expected as normal reaction times, so the at fault person may have not even caused anything if the intoxicated person reacted at the proper time and in the expected way. That's not to say that person deserves fault assigned, but probably should be tested too (and charged appropriately if results are positive) as their intoxication played into someone else's mistake.

I just don't think the legal system can really produce a result in this case that is fair for everyone. It would have to reach that conclusion the first time, and that would probably require that both lawyers are at the top of their game and the Judge (and jury?) is remarkably awesome.

That plea deal is going to shake things up and make this real hard on him I think, if not impossible.
 
I can agree with being against the death penalty in cases of first degree murder, but why not vehicular manslaughter + DUI? I mean, you have the guy's car, you have a sample of his blood proving his intoxication, you have the victim's blood strewn about... how do you convict the innocent for that?
 
This guy already admitted fault by taking the plea deal - is it possible he was innocent and just felt he had no choice given his criminal record? Sure. But that doesn't change the fact that he voluntarily took the plea and very likely gave up the right to appeal the conviction as part of that deal.

He's not going to be able to collaterally attack the conviction through a civil lawsuit. The estate should be able to get the case dismissed on a motion to dismiss and might be able to get sanctions against the sister for filing a frivolous lawsuit. Tampa has some fairly conservative judges with very busy dockets, and whoever is assigned to this is likely not going to appreciate the case.
 
HamburgerBoy said:
I can agree with being against the death penalty in cases of first degree murder, but why not vehicular manslaughter + DUI? I mean, you have the guy's car, you have a sample of his blood proving his intoxication, you have the victim's blood strewn about... how do you convict the innocent for that?
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Mind you, I'm playing Devil's Advocate here...

What if you have the car and drug-containing blood of a person, but that person didn't actually cause the accident?

What do you do? What if, by physical evidence alone (these low-profile cases don't have the benefit of the evidence getting scrutinized at a hardcore CSI-level) you cannot determine 100% what vehicle truly caused the accident? There are numerous cases that require a full understanding of what was going on to determine fault, i.e. a driver that was t-boned can at fault, or the person who t-boned the other car could be at fault.
And evidence can be unwittingly fudged, or forgotten, as someone with a history and the initial guilty bias (and supposed fault) has a very hard uphill battle to prove otherwise in the minds of those reaching the verdict.
 
This is why criminals like this should be taken behind the courthouse and shot in the head.

How much money will be wasted on this farce?
 
"Ya know..if they would've stayed home that night none of this would've ever happened and I probably would've made it home too without killing anyone. So yeah..it's their fault for being on the same road as I was."

Amazing what people will do to try and get out of serving their time.
 
destrekor said:
Mind you, I'm playing Devil's Advocate here...

What if you have the car and drug-containing blood of a person, but that person didn't actually cause the accident?

What do you do? What if, by physical evidence alone (these low-profile cases don't have the benefit of the evidence getting scrutinized at a hardcore CSI-level) you cannot determine 100% what vehicle truly caused the accident? There are numerous cases that require a full understanding of what was going on to determine fault, i.e. a driver that was t-boned can at fault, or the person who t-boned the other car could be at fault.
And evidence can be unwittingly fudged, or forgotten, as someone with a history and the initial guilty bias (and supposed fault) has a very hard uphill battle to prove otherwise in the minds of those reaching the verdict.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I was being too general, but it seems that a lot of these accidents end with the driver still in the car at the time of the crash. Say, a drunk driver veers into the wrong lane and hits another car head-on, killing the driver of the other car. Unless it's a giant SUV vs a Yaris, the drunk guy still won't be able to flee. Then there's the high likelihood of it being caught on video, either by traffic cameras or random people with cell phones or whatever. I think that a good portion could be determined with 100% certainty.
 
destrekor said:
Mind you, I'm playing Devil's Advocate here...

What if you have the car and drug-containing blood of a person, but that person didn't actually cause the accident?

What do you do? What if, by physical evidence alone (these low-profile cases don't have the benefit of the evidence getting scrutinized at a hardcore CSI-level) you cannot determine 100% what vehicle truly caused the accident? There are numerous cases that require a full understanding of what was going on to determine fault, i.e. a driver that was t-boned can at fault, or the person who t-boned the other car could be at fault.
And evidence can be unwittingly fudged, or forgotten, as someone with a history and the initial guilty bias (and supposed fault) has a very hard uphill battle to prove otherwise in the minds of those reaching the verdict.
Click to expand...

In this case you know it was his fault.

Authorities said Belniak, at the time of the accident on Christmas day 2007, was driving between 75 and 85 mph when his pickup smashed into the back of McWilliams' Chevrolet Tahoe.
Click to expand...

I'm not even sure it was on the highway.
 
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