Disparate Scales Used in 2 Cases to Measure Justice

Two courtrooms, two unrelated cases, two defendants standing in the dock about to find out what part of their futures they would forfeit. One was young and handsome, the other old and ordinary. Neither had ever been in legal trouble but now stood accused of crimes.

The young man had been the designated driver for a vehicle full of teenagers and lost control while speeding. The vehicle flipped and several teens were tossed out, including an 18-year-old classmate who died. Two others were seriously injured, including a young woman who remained in a coma for 11 weeks.

The old man, on the other hand, drank too much ale one afternoon last September, put on a fake mustache and walked into a Huntington Beach savings and loan. Pointing an unloaded gun at a teller, he asked politely for $2,500. He drove off in his own car, and police were waiting at his house to arrest him when he got back.

Last week, the two men were judged.

Jason Rausch, the 18-year-old behind the wheel of the Chevy Blazer that fateful night last May, was convicted of misdemeanor vehicular manslaughter. He’ll be sentenced later this month but can get no more than a year in jail. The Orange County Superior Court judge who heard the case acquitted Rausch of two other misdemeanor charges, following his earlier decision not to try the young man on a felony charge requested by prosecutors.

Meanwhile, in federal court, 77-year-old Ray Boeger learned he’ll go to prison for 28 months because of his pathetic attempt at a bank holdup.

Nothing about the two cases suggests they should be coupled, except for the absurd disparity in the sentences. When people talk about the unevenness of justice, let them discuss these two cases.

In one, the judge needed wisdom.

In the other, merely some heart.

What to do about Jason Rausch has tormented many Newport Beach families and, to a lesser emotional extent, troubled many of the rest of us. What is the proper punishment, if any, for a teenage driver who wasn’t drinking but was speeding when the vehicle went out of control? No one suggests criminal intent caused the death, but what level of responsibility is required for a driver who has the lives of nine passengers in his hands? What is the point of being a designated driver if that driver still drives too fast?

Even while citing speeding as the cause of the accident, Judge Everett Dickey opted for leniency. A reasonable person could make an impassioned case that leniency isn’t called for--that the carnage left from the accident must be accounted for with sternness--but I can’t do it with any verve. By any reckoning, what happened that night in Newport was a horrible tragedy, and the judge will do justice by sentencing Rausch to something that doesn’t involve jail.

But a meaningful sentence there must be, to acknowledge that improper behavior caused a death. Dickey’s track record suggests he’ll think of something substantive that neither minimizes Donny Bridgman’s death nor exacts a needless pound of flesh.

It’s the kind of sentence you would have hoped for from federal Judge Gary Taylor, who slammed Boeger with 28 months. True, that was only half the term he could have given Boeger under federal guidelines, but it was more than even the prosecutor requested.

While all roads lead to tragedy in the Rausch case, they almost take comic turns in Boeger’s.

I’m not suggesting for a second there’s anything frivolous about pointing a gun, even an unloaded one, at a bank teller. Nor is leaving a bank with $2,500 belonging to other people, no matter how “apologetic” authorities say Boeger was in asking for it.

But 28 months in prison for a 77-year-old man who was so inept that witnesses had no trouble jotting down his license number as he drove away in his 1980 Cadillac? This is no hardened criminal we’re taking off the streets.

I wouldn’t have expected Judge Taylor to chuckle at Boeger and compliment him on his caper. But if my only two sentencing choices were doing that or giving him 28 months, I’d have to do some serious thinking.

If Boeger is the kind of guy who reads the newspaper, he might look at his sentence, then at Rausch’s, and ask the obvious question about his own crime: “Hey, who died?”

The rest of us can only shake our heads. Shake them in sadness about the death of Donny Bridgman and the two injured passengers and the guilty conscience of Jason Rausch. And shake them in amazement at the judicial sense of Judge Gary Taylor.

Dana Parsons’ column appears Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. Readers may reach Parsons by calling (714) 966-7821, by writing to him at The Times Orange County Edition, 1375 Sunflower Ave., Costa Mesa, CA 92626, or by e-mail at [email protected].