tell them one of their teammates will not be there anymore. they cried so hard. it was pure emotion for them. from body temperature investigators estimated rafeal was killed around midnight. since nobody reported the accident, it was officially listed as a hit-and-run fatality. on the highway evidence found evidence of where rafeal was standing when hit. it was clear from the debris field that rafeal was in fact on the side of that road. there is no evidence at all rafeal was walking in the lane or close to the lane of travel. there were no skid marks kae indicating the driver did not try to stop before or after the
the path of the secret service car. ten-degree approach angle between these two vehicles places the secret service dodge aries within its lane of travel, and moving slightly from left to right as a potential evasive tactic as impact takes place. eyewitness testimony established that the secret service agents were driving at around 35 miles per hour. the critical question was how fast was deputy sinclair driving? sinclair claimed he was going 55 or 60 miles per hour. applying the laws of conservation of momentum, mait calculated he was actually doing 76 miles per hour. when he came into that curve, his vehicle was out of position for the speed that he was traveling. when he saw traffic coming at him in the eastbound direction, he simply didn t have enough distance or enough time to safely negotiate the curve.
he panicked, locked up the brakes on the patrol car. once he did that, the patrol car slides straight across the inside of the curve, into the opposing traffic lane and struck the second secret service vehicle. based on its three-week investigation, the california highway patrol believed that sergeant sinclair was grossly negligent and recommended that he be criminally prosecuted. i believe the facts were there, given the circumstances, that you could make a case for misdemeanor manslaughter. but one man had lingering doubts about the investigation. attorney charles brunn, who represented rod sinclair, believed something vital might have been missed. rod kept saying over and over again, they were in my lane of travel. they were heading right at me. there was nothing i could do but hit the brakes. was deputy sinclair telling the truth? rod hired his own investigators
and it just devastated our kids. they cried so hard, and just for the next week to ten days, it was pure emotion for them. from body temperature and degree of rigor mortis, investigators estimated rafael had been killed around midnight. since no one reported the accident, it was officially listed as a hit-and-run fatality. on the highway, investigators found evidence of where rafael was standing when hit. it was clear from the debris field that rafael was, in fact, on the side of that road. there s no evidence at all that rafael was walking in the lane or even close to the lane of travel. there were no skid marks, indicating the driver had not tried to stop before or after the crash. they did find broken pieces of glass and plastic, as well as seven tiny, red paint chips on the shoulder of the road and in
inside of the curve, into the opposing traffic lane and struck the second secret service vehicle. based on its three-week investigation, the california highway patrol believed that sergeant sinclair was grossly negligent and recommended that he be criminally prosecuted. i believe the facts were there, given the circumstances, that you could make a case for misdemeanor manslaughter. but one man had lingering doubts about the investigation. attorney charles brunn, who represented rod sinclair, believed something vital might have been missed. rod kept saying over and over again, they were in my lane of travel. they were heading right at me. there was nothing i could do but hit the brakes. was deputy sinclair telling the truth? rod hired his own investigators to find out and what they would discover would force the highway