Guy Gets 7,5 Years in Prison for Driving in the Wrong Direction

[Pelle]

Happaned in Arizona.

This is a story about what must be one of the most unlucky people ever. This is a guy that moved to the states because he was bullied at his school in Oslo. In 2002 he studied in Chicago. He was assaulted by two people while jogging, and in September the same year his school kicked him out because he might be a terrorist. He sued the school so that he might continue his studies elsewhere.

He has spent the last seven months in Navajo County Jail, mostly isolated, with handcuffs and foot chains, convicted of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. The weapon: His moms rental car.

On Saturday 24th of September last year, John and his mother were driving from Los Angeles to Chicago in John´s Volvo. His mother was driving, when a warning light comes on indicating something is wrong with a tire. She decided to exit at the first opportunity, Winslow, Arizona. However something is wrong with the steering and they crash in the central reserve.

They are taken for a check-up at Winslow hospital, then they need a rental car. A taxi driver took them to Flagstaff where they could pick up a rental car, then they headed back to Winslow to get their belongings. On this day, the annual music festival was going on in Winslow. John mistakenly turns into Winslow´s 2. street going the wrong way down the one way street full of people enjoying the festivities. John drives slowly but some people still hurl abuse and make threatening gestures towards the car.

When he tried to turn into the Auto Shop where his Volvo was towed, a crowd surrounded the car and his mother panicked and told him to get out of there. He backed up against a curb and got a flat tire. He stopped a few meters away from a hot dog stand. There is a woman and her kids inside the hot dog stand, the car never made any contact with them or the stand. Many of the witnessess thinks this is deadly dangerous driving. They drive around the block, enter 2. street the right way and stop. The car is surrounded by people. Michael Mendoza, saw what happened from his store and had chased the car around the block thinking John had attemted to kill his wife and children. John has the window rolled down and is reciving verbal abuse when Mendoza shows up and punches John in the face, spewing blood all over the steeringwheel, breaking his nose.

He panicks, hits the gas, turns in the street and leaves as fast he can. During this maneuver one woman surrounding his car has her toe run over, another woman was scratched as she jumped away from the car. Those are the only injuries.

John calls 911. Right after this, at least 10 police officers show up with their weapons drawn. Both his mom and John is arrested. John has not been released since.


It turns out that the angry witnesses are all related or friends. His lawyer Criss Candelaria, a former DA of 22 years, calls it a scandal. The honrary consul of Norway to Phoenix, Professor George Olander at State University of Arizona says the case is shameful for the United States, and that a ticket for reckless driving would have been enough.

Tomorrow he will recieve his sentencing, a minimum of five years.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1002601538

In norwegian:
http://www.vg.no/nyheter/utenriks/ar...artid=10073343

[Madikken]

This has been all over the news here. Seems insane..

[Madikken]

http://www.tv2.no/nyheter/utenriks/n...a-3764540.html

He got 7.5 years!!

[bigmikeymike]

haven't heard anything about it here, and I'm in Navajo county.


Winslow is pretty small though, so claiming that they all knew eachother isn't "out there"

HOWEVER, if he didn't know how to drive then he shouldn't have been driving. Did he have a license? And if he did that means he knows and understands the rules of the road. If so then why would he go the wrong way on a street?

I feel as if we're not getting the full story here

[bigmikeymike]

backing up against the curb and getting a flat tire: reckless driving
Running over a woman's foot and then fleeing: Hit and run
Driving the wrong way down the road: reckless driving


The guy who hit him in the face should be charged with assault though, and all the people in the street should be charged with blocking the flow of traffic

[TheCapn]

Theres always more to a story..

[TwistedPrincess]

the guy didn't do it right. first off, he needed to claim that this was done to him because he is a norwegian.

next he needed to get thousands of norwegians to come to the area and get angry and threaten to riot.

after that, he needed to claim that what happened to him was done by the guy with the hotdog stand and that he was just driving down the street when he was attacked with a sizzling hot hotdog that burned him and left him scarred for life.

finally he needed to get a friend of his to hack the facebook accounts of the hotdog stand owner's two daughters and reveal what whores and druggies they are.

he might also mention that he suffered police abuse because they used excessive force on him while illegally arresting him.

oh yeah and the morning of his arrest, he ate a couple of those damned high sugar content twinkies which caused him not to be himself anyway. the best defense is a good offense and a good offense is a twinkie defense.

if he had done it this way, he would have been given an apology, lots of news coverage, an offer to do commercials for mens clothing, an offer to do a commercial for deodrant, an undisclosed amount of money from the city's settlement with him regarding the police's mistreatment of him during the time they were falsely arresting him, a starring role in an upcoming movie, the opportunity to carry the torch for the next olympics, AND he would have owned the hotdog stand.

[Timmyboy188]

I grew up in Sedona AZ, We were all very polite folk up there, but we had a bad side for crappy driving tourists, sounds reasonable what happened. His sentence though, come on, you're in the most civilized country to be in jail, try a little harder to state your case and get out, it's his own fault at this point.

[HairyGrape]

What makes this story really crazy...I just read a story about a woman who brutally beat a poor baby to death, and only got 77 days! Yup...77 fucking day. Piece of shit judge.

[bigmikeymike]

I'm sure she won't last 77 days



well, I mean, I hope she doesn't last that long