Hit-run law makes running costlier
0:26 AM 12/08/03
Richard W. Jaeger Regional reporter

Last Monday in a Madison courtroom, Ramon Medina-Fuentes, 37, a former Dane County social worker, was sentenced to 18 years in prison and 29 years of extended supervision, for killing Samantha Cullen, 21, a UW-Eau Claire student from Brooklyn, in a head-on crash two years ago. <

On the same day, but in a courtroom in Dodge County, Moose Balian, 45, a town of Lebanon firefighter and EMT, was sentenced to three years in prison and three years of extended supervision for the crash that killed Jimmy Gengler, 17, of rural Watertown, who was riding home from work on his bicycle. <

Medina-Fuentes was drunk when he crashed into Cullen on Highway 14 south of Madison, and was found at the scene. Balian, who said he had two beers before his crash, fled the scene but was caught two months later after making extensive efforts to cover up what he had done. <

So why the wide disparity in the sentencing, given the similarity of the crimes? <

At the time of Balian's hit-and-run, the maximum penalty for failing to stop and render aid in a fatal accident was seven years in prison. Medina-Fuentes, however, faced a maximum sentence of 60 years in prison for homicide by intoxicated operation of a motor vehicle. <

The disparity in penalties left little incentive for a driver who has been drinking to stop when involved in a crash, fatal or otherwise. <

But that changed Nov. 12 when Gov. Jim Doyle signed into law changes increasing the penalty for hit-and-run driving to 25 years in prison and up to a $100,000 fine. <

Although too late for them, the Gengler death and the hit-and-run death of Aimee Kubler, 28, who was run down by a hit-and-run driver while jogging near her home in the town of Primrose on April 18, 2002, played a role in convincing legislators to increase the penalty. In the Kubler case, Nathan Leopold, 29, was sentenced to seven years in prison. <

The two hit-and-run deaths and the more recent death of the Rev. Susan Quigley, 47, who was killed by a hit-and-run driver on Madison's North Side two weeks before the bill was signed, were cited by Doyle and others attending the signing. Quigley's killer remains at-large although police have identified the car that struck her. <

Dodge County Sheriff Todd Nehls, whose department arrested Balian, sees the change in the law working as a deterrent to fleeing the scene of an accident, even if they have been drinking. <

"Moose might have gotten away without any charges if he would have stopped and rendered aid," Nehls said. "If he wasn't intoxicated as he says, then he had little to worry about. <

"There was no evidence he was speeding and he was driving in his lane of traffic and it was dark. There was evidence the bicycle was in the lane of traffic and that it didn't have any rear reflectors and the boy was wearing dark clothing. It wasn't a question of who was wrong. But the fact Balian didn't stop and tried to cover up what he had done, that is where he broke the law." <

Susan Gengler Liermann, mother of the dead teen, also hopes the changes in penalty will make drivers think before they flee. <

"I am not looking at the punishment this would impose as much as I hope it will save others from the months of agony we were put through not knowing who had killed Jimmy and why," she said. <

Gengler Liermann said while 25 years is still a small price to pay for a life, she thinks that if the threat of that penalty causes one driver to stop and render aid, it will be worth it. <

The author of the bill, state Rep. J.A. "Doc" Hines, R-Oxford, voiced similar praises for the change saying "it was badly needed." <

He said he sought the change after the sheriff of Marquette County pointed out the disparity following the arrest in a hit-and-run driver involved a double fatality in that county. <

"By running away, that driver waited until he sobered up, turned himself in and faces only hit-and-run charges compared to drunk driving. That didn't make any sense," Hines said. "With the penalties for hit-and-run now being the same for drunken driving, hopefully this will get drivers to stop and try and help when they hit someone." <

Hines said his fellow legislators saw the disparity and passed the bill, which he introduced in May, into law in six months. <

Madison Attorney Christopher Van Wagner, who represented Medina-Fuentes, said he could not comment on the disparity in the sentencing of his client and Balian because he represents another client whose case played a role in changing the hit-and-run penalty. <

Balian's attorney, Dennis Melowski of Elkhart Lake, was not available to comment. <