1. why India or Pakistan
Sikhs are from Punjab province which is split between India and Pakistan. I wouldn't particularly think one would get much of a medical education in Pakistan but I could be wrong; certainly it's less stable than India.

A felony in the US would destroy her medical career. You are acting appropriately to protect your clients interest to get that reduced to a misdemeanor and I totally respect that even though I believe it an appropriate charge this is an adversarial system and I side with the prosecution on this matter. Yes, absolutely, make an example out of her. Why -her-? Exactly because of her personal situation. Show that noone gets away with it. She killed a man. I highly recommend BTW you not touch the helmet issue -- go look up the ANSI/Snell standard, is supposed to protect the rider against falling from the bike. The force impacting the head when a rider hits the ground at 40 mph (because a wheel crumpled or whatever) is orders of magnitude less than being hit by a car. Its like the force on your hand when you catch a baseball that was thrown (even a good hard throw from a strong pitcher) vs. one that e.g. Reggie Jackson hit for a line drive down center field. Or even -be- that baseball hit by Reggie's bat. The thrown ball caught is a 'thwack', the ball hit by the bat is 'CRACK'.

I do not know, it is an interesting question, how a conviction on a felony for this crime would affect her career over in India. My recommendation is based on 1) possibly false premise that the Indian medical school would not be affected by a MV-related felony charge in the US if indeed they would ever know 2) if the desire is to help others by becoming a physician go where they need physicians to help people; if medical practice in India doesn't satisfy intellectually or whatever, there's always Medicins Sans Frontiers and the like. Again, why India? Think the target audience for Mother Theresa's order. Those people need medical care. If the idea is to pursue a life of service healing others, that's a good place to go.

2,
Why not Antigua or Guadlajara? Well, for starters a felony conviction would kill a US residency and that's the point of those schools (same as Sackler School NY program in Tel Aviv).

3. India BTW doesn't tolerate genocide. Please don't use that word. That's like Rwanda Hutus vs. Tutsis and of course the Nazis. No, the riots in India are religious but they don't try to kill everyone of the opposite side just whoever's handy at the moment. In genocide, there is a significant attempt and intent to get -everyone-. Is it genocide when a mob of whites in the mid-20th century grabs a handy bunch of blacks, for racial reasons, and lynches or tar and feathers or other acts of physical violence? No. It's a hate crime. Genocide is a hate crime but not all hate crimes are genocide. I'm missing a good chunk of great-aunts and uncles and cousins who for various reasons never made it out of various parts of Poland and Ukraine so were caught up in and exterminated in the infamous genocide plans of the Nazis. India suffers from occasional massive convulsions like the Watts riots in the US. But because they are 1.2 billion people and the US is around 200 Million, the casualty figures are 6-10x as high because the riot is 6-10x the size (in the US, a riot of 4000 people is huge and our worst riots in Civil War era here in NY killed a couple hundred people; in India, those are 30-40,000 people rioting and kill a couple thousand). It's not also that the Indians tolerate it. They don't like it anymore than anyone else. When, however, you have 2000 police and 40000 rioters its tough and e.g. half burn the train while half fight the police.

4. Finally: attorneys are advocates for their clients. You are certainly trying your best here but at the moment you're a piece of fresh meat in the mob of pit bulls. I respect you for trying but I have no sympathy for your client. We ALL see ourselves potentially in Maxim Vickers place. I suggest that you might consider riding with us some day on the roads to see why we feel this way but not sure that's going to help your client.

I want to address myself here to just one thought in your careful, well drafted note, above.

You cite the closeness of Sikh families as explaining why Ms. Nanda left and perhaps even exculpating Ms. Nanda for leaving the scene of her having hit Maxim in order to be with her father and, presumably, get his guidance and counsel before doing anything else.

Mr. Michelen, this is a woman who intends to be a DOCTOR! Don't you think, even if she weren't intending to be a doctor, and she saw someone slip on the ice in front of her, she would stop, bend down, help that person up, and ask if he was OK, and if he wasn't, seek to render what aid she could. I bet you would.

But as she intends to be a doctor doesn't that suggest, if not impose a heightened commitment to helping those in physical distress? She needs her father to tell her to render aid? I don't think so—and neither do you. She may be from a close knit family, as you say (I'm not unaware of your having had at least one other sikh client so don't for a moment suggest the instant case is your introduction to Sikh culture) I bet she doesn't need her father to tell her not to cheat in school, not to litter, and to help people in need of help.

You write, above, "Ms. Nanda did not know Mr. Vickers was dying or near death and did not leave him knowing he was going to die. She panicked -its a reaction not a thought process- and nothing about the accident would lead her to believe that she was involved in a fatal accident." If she thought he had merely injured Mr. Vickers, that gives her even less reason to panic and more reason to stop and render aid, doesn't it.

Why should her academic standing and professional aspiration affect the charge against her and any punishment, as you suggest it should? A corollary or implication of that is, if a poorly educated, 20 year old high school drop out from a broken family fled after killing a cyclist and didn't report this to the police, he is deserving of a harsher punishment than Ms. Nanda due to his reduced circumstance. In fact, Mr. Michelen, one might well argue that, by dint of her privileged education and family situation and her ambition to be a doctor, if anything, a higher standard of conduct might be expected of, if not imposed upon Ms. Nanda. But I don't think that. Geometry: Things equal to the same thing are equal to each other. Her academic accomplishment and professional aspiration (should) have no bearing on her charge or punishment. (Even as it's a dreadful jump in the severity of the crime, might one not allude to the stellar academic accomplishments of Loeb and Leopold—one of whom thought to become a doctor?)

(In any event, am I mistaken that one applying for licensure may apply to licensing boards for a waiver from a conviction after a sentence and serving a punishment? Am I mistaken that reinstatements of medical licenses have been achieved where they had been suspended for life?)

It's Mr. Brown, but you dont have to call me Mr. I never got comfortable with honorifics.

I think that it's a little bit of a stretch to compare a prison sentence for leaving the scene of an accident to Nelson Mandela's political imprisonment.

I totally agree that criminals should be punished, and I am fully aware of the sociological reasons why prison sentences are handed down. I like the idea of putting people behind bars who pose a danger to the rest of us.

Maybe Priya poses a danger to us because of her negligent driving. However, to me, this just doesnt sound like a situation where another life should be ruined because of an extremely tragic accident. A large part of my thinking on this is that I just dont think that the LIE service road is a safe place to ride. Hell -- I dont even feel comfortable on 9W until I'm a few miles up from the GWB. Also, I am pretty sure that she is never going to hit another cyclist.

For the record, I am not someone who is "soft on crime", and I am a stong believer in cyclists' rights. I am also a pragmatist. I just dont think that society gains from jailing someone who otherwise sounds like an exemplary person.

She left the scene, but she did eventually do the right thing, and people are become unpredictable in panic situations. If I were in the same situation, I probably would have phoned it in, immediately and from the scene, but everyone is different.

Bob Schmon, I love you , man! Thank you for your wonderfully eloquent, articulate, and succinct post (Thu, 2011-02-03 21:12). Just brilliant. I wept. Seriously.

"No one is going to feel good about Priya being punished—the whole incident is tragic, but don’t ever say that a felony conviction for Priya would be a second tragedy, because it gets to the core of why laws exist in the first place. Such a conviction would not only be justice, it would be a conclusion that could truly save lives in the future, and for me that would be a happy ending for everyone, including Priya."

Very, very well said.

NYCC Oldtimer

wow...

Unlawyerily?

It most certainly was.

"Priya Nanda's attorney—she being the woman who killed Maxim then fled—Oscar Michelen (who, astonishingly [and, one might add, unlawyerly] posted three notes on our message board) has withdrawn from the case. The case has been adjourned until March 8."

I think after reading all our objections to their stance, he knew he would lose so he backed out.

I'm not a lawyer, but I would have backed out too.

NYCC Oldtimer

I wondered if things picked up again on March 8th? If so, any news?

NYCC Oldtimer

Thank you and Gerard McCloskey for your diligence.

NYCC Oldtimer