Category: STS&G News

A drunken driver who killed a teenager on New Year’s Day has agreed to an unusual settlement of the lawsuit against him: He will pay $100 to the boy’s school every year on the anniversary of the teen’s death.

And he will do it for 14 years – once a year for every year of the dead boy’s life.

The settlement was the idea of Michael L. Goodove, a Norfolk lawyer who lost his own brother to a drunken driver in Charlottesville in 1990.

The settlement also gives $100,000 to the dead boy’s family, the maximum under the driver’s insurance policy, before lawyer fees are deducted. The $100-a-year payment is above and beyond the insurance.

Norfolk Judge John E. Clarkson approved the settlement Friday.

“I insisted on something from the driver personally,” said Goodove, who represents the dead boy’s family and is chairman of the local chapter of Mothers Against Drunk Driving. “It sends a message to him, it sends a message to other offenders, and it memorializes the victim.”

The victim was 14-year-old Ernest “Smokey” Hunt of Chesapeake, an articulate, well-liked honor student at Deep Creek Middle School. He was sleeping in the back of a car driven by his brother when a drunken driver plowed into the car’s rear, pinning the teen inside.

“He did everything right,” Goodove said. “He was an honor student, he was college-bound. By all indications, he was going to make it. Then a drunk driver got him.”

The accident happened at 3 a.m. New Year’s Day on Interstate 264 near the Berkley Bridge.

The drunken driver – Steve F. Morris, 23, of Chesapeake – pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter and driving under the influence. He was sentenced to two years and 11 months in prison.

Morris had an extensive driving record, including four previous convictions for speeding and one for driving on a suspended license, Goodove said.

At Morris’ sentencing in August, Hunt’s relatives described the devastation the accident caused their family.

“My father just sits around thinking of things to do to get his mind off of Smokey,” said Hunt’s brother, Chantalle, in a written statement. “Most of the time my dad keeps to himself. That hurts knowing how he feels. . . It is hard living in a house that nobody wants to be in. I had plans to move out, but now I’m scared to.”

The boy’s mother, Edna R. Floyd, wrote, “There is no more joy and laughter in my household, only the pain and lots of tears. My family is very, very afraid that I die, too, because my pain is so great. My husband watches over me at night so that I will not hurt myself.”

Teachers wrote about what an extraordinary student Ernest was. He was a member of the National Junior Honor Society and the school’s XLR-8 team.

“He was a very positive, upbeat young man who was willing to give of himself. Whenever anything needed to be done, he volunteered,” wrote one teacher, V.E. Valentine.

“Ernest was a joy to teach and was an exemplary student,” wrote five teachers in the XLR-8 program. “Academically, Ernest maintained the honor roll every year of his life. He worked diligently to reap these honors. His polite and trusting manner brought a smile to the faces of his teachers.”

The boy’s future seemed bright. Last year, he wrote an upbeat poem about himself titled “Me.” In it, he described himself as “a young, ambitious black male” who feels sadness in the world but tries to “touch the hearts of everyone around me.”

“I dream every night I go to bed. I try to make the best out of life. I hope everything I want will soon be mine,” he wrote.

Hunt’s family sued Morris for the boy’s “wrongful death” in Norfolk Circuit Court. Normally, such cases are settled for whatever insurance is available.

In this case, however, Goodove insisted that Morris write a check to Hunt’s school every year on the anniversary of Hunt’s death, as a reminder to himself and the community of the teen’s life.

It is not known what the school will do with the money.

“My son believed that education was the key to success and to a bright future,” his mother wrote in June. “Therefore, I feel that part of Mr. Morris’ sentence should be to donate his income to Deep Creek Middle School, towards education so that we can have better people and less crime.”

Morris will write the first check on Jan. 1, 2000 – the first New Year’s Day that he will be free from prison.

The Virginia Beach man charged with killing two people when his van collided with their car after running a red light in downtown Norfolk has a record of drunken-driving charges that dates to 1976.

Arnold O. Peterson was stopped 19 years ago on his first DUI charge at the Brambleton Avenue exit on Interstate 264. He took the same exit Saturday night during a 15-mile chase by police that ended with the collision that killed a Richmond lawyer and a Virginia Beach woman.

Mike Goodove, chairman of the Southside chapter of Mothers Against Drunk Driving, called Peterson’s history of DUIs “shocking and appalling.”

“He is looking at 40 years if he is charged with aggravated manslaughter, and he is a man who deserves to be incarcerated,” Goodove said.

Killed were William L. Rosbe, a 50-year-old attorney who survived more than 200 missions in Vietnam as a Marine pilot, and 40-year-old Terrie G. Timms of the 1500 block of Southwick Road in Virginia Beach.

Peterson, 47, appeared Monday morning in Norfolk General District Court. Prosecutors said they would pursue two charges of involuntary manslaughter. They decided not to immediately prosecute drunk-driving charges for fear of double-jeopardy. The arraignment was continued until Feb. 8.

Additional charges are pending against Peterson in Virginia Beach, including reckless driving and a felony charge of eluding police,said Virginia Beach Police Department spokesman Mike Carey.

Meanwhile, authorities from three law-enforcement agencies involved in the chase defended their policies that govern high-speed pursuits, claiming that no violations by participating officers were committed Saturday night.

“I’ve gone over the policy any number of times in the past and again today,” said Lt. Col. Basil Belsches, deputy superintendent of the Virginia State Police. “And I can’t see where we went wrong.”

Belsches said the review of the incident will include a look at all relevant policies.

Carey and Norfolk Police Department spokesman Larry Hill said their agencies also are conducting reviews that will include pursuit policies, but both said their officers acted properly.

Carey said the chase was started by Virginia Beach officers, who picked up Peterson’s van on radar as it was speeding on International Parkway about 11:15 p.m.

“The vehicle was considered to be driving recklessly,” Carey said. “It was not a bald tire or a headlight out.”

Hill said Norfolk officers joined in when the car entered their city.

“Here is a man who had DUI convictions,” said Hill. “If you let him go, this drunk driver could go on down the road and kill someone else. It is a no-win situation.”

Officers in both cities performed secondary roles once state troopers took control of the chase near the Newtown Road exit of the Virginia Beach-Norfolk Expressway at the request of Virginia Beach police, Belsches said.

A state police car, which carried a camera that videotaped the chase, picked up the pursuit and followed Peterson on the expressway at speeds reaching 80 mph onto Interstate 264, where another state police cruiser joined in, Belsches said.

Both cruisers followed Peterson’s van when it exited I-264 at Brambleton Avenue. The state police cars remained about a block behind Peterson, Belsches said, as he raced along Brambleton, running red lights at speeds that reached 50 mph. Peterson then maneuvered his van onto the oncoming traffic lane on Brambleton Avenue. The street is divided by a concrete median.

Police first reported incorrectly Saturday that Rosbe and Timms apparently were leaving the opera in Rosbe’s 1983 BMW when the accident occurred. There was no opera Saturday night, but there was a Crystal Gayle concert at Chrysler Hall.

Hill said Rosbe’s car flipped several times because Peterson’s van hit the car broadside and pushed it against a curb. The curb, Hill said, acted “just like someone sticking their foot out and tripping you.”

Police said Peterson, of the 2100 block of Beckman Cove, was not seriously injured.

The van was owned by Nansemond Heating and Cooling. Peterson was not authorized to drive the vehicle, said the company’s owner, Grant Huneycutt.

During the chase, a representative of the company was called by police, who saw the company’s telephone number on the side of the van. The company representative said that the van was not supposed to be on the street.

“Arnie was not authorized to drive a company vehicle,” said Huneycutt. “He obtained this vehicle improperly.”

Before Norfolk police got involved, the troopers and Virginia Beach officers vigorously pursued the van in part because they mistakenly believed it might have been a vehicle stolen by youths involved in a Portsmouth-area robbery spree Saturday night.

Belsches said troopers involved in the chase also were acting under the impression that the van may have been stolen by the robbery suspects.

Portsmouth police arrested two teenagers on Sunday who are suspected in the string of robberies on Saturday in Portsmouth. Another teen was being sought Monday.

Peterson, who is being held in the Norfolk City Jail, was out on a $7,500 bond at the time of the accident for a DUI charge in Virginia Beach.

Carey said Virginia Beach police officers encountered Peterson at the intersection of Old Donation Parkway and First Colonial Road at 3:53 a.m. on Dec. 3. He also was charged with assaulting a police officer, resisting arrest and an unrelated domestic assault charge. He was to appear in court on the charges Feb. 27.

Peterson’s first DUI charge in Hampton Roads appears to have been in September of 1976 when he was stopped on Interstate 264 by the Virginia State Police.

He was stopped again less than a year later by Norfolk police on Llewellyn Avenue and charged with DUI. Both charges were levied before court records were computerized, and it was unclear if Peterson was found guilty.

However, records do show that in February of 1992 Peterson was convicted of DUI in Virginia Beach.

Peterson also has a reckless driving conviction in Chesapeake in 1991 and an improper driving conviction in Virginia Beach in 1994, court records show.

Both victims of Saturday’s accident were recently widowed. The survivors of Terrie Timms include three children. She also had three stepchildren whose natural mother is still alive.

Arnold O. Peterson was given 20 years in prison on Monday for driving drunk during a police chase last January that ended in a collision and killed a Richmond lawyer and his fiance.

It was the stiffest drunken-driving sentence that Norfolk Commonwealth’s Attorney Charles D. Griffith Jr. could remember. Peterson, 48, will serve at least 17 years without parole under the state’s new statutes on aggravated involuntary manslaughter, Griffith said.

Peterson’s van crashed into a BMW driven by William L. Rosbe, 50, at the intersection of Brambleton Avenue and Duke Street late at night on Jan. 21.

Rosbe and Teresa G. Timms, 40, of Virginia Beach, were killed instantly. Peterson, who had led police on a 15-mile chase beginning on International Parkway in Virginia Beach, was not seriously injured.

Circuit Judge John E. Clarkson said the long police chase set Peterson’s case apart from other drunken-driving, manslaughter cases.

“When you evade the blue lights, and you don’t stop you are going to be punished and punished severely,” Clarkson said. “I can’t think of a more serious case. If you went into a 7-Eleven and shot two people, it would have been capital murder.”

Clarkson actually sentenced Peterson to 46 years on four counts: 40 years for two counts of aggravated involuntary manslaughter, five years for eluding police and one year for driving under the influence.

But the judge suspended 26 years, saying that “I want to give you some hope.”

Part of the evidence that Clarkson considered was a videotape of the chase and collision made by a state trooper.

Although the courtroom audience could not see the tape, the footage showed in graphic detail that Peterson weaved through traffic at speeds reaching 80 mph before crashing into Rosbe’s car, according to Griffith. It took at least six police officers to wrestle Peterson out of his van, Griffith said.

After the sentencing, relatives of the victims said they were pleased that the sentence will keep Peterson behind bars until he is a senior citizen. “We feel it was a reasonable sentence,” said Julie Brooks, Teresa Timms’ sister. “We can live with it and hope that the public can get the message.”

But at least one was less than satisfied. “I would have preferred the maximum, from the point of view of public safety and sending a message,” said James R. Rosbe, the brother of William Rosbe. “But it is fairly stiff. I was afraid it would be like five or six years.”

Mike Goodove, chairman of the Southside branch of Mothers Against Drunk Driving, said he was less than pleased.

“We certainly agree with the court handing down a maximum sentence in this case,” Goodove said. “However 20 years served is a poor price to pay for two lives.”

Peterson, wearing shackles and dressed in a rumpled blue suit with no tie, blamed the accident on his alcoholism and marital difficulties.

He told the court that on the day of the accident he had moved his belongings from the home he shared with his wife and two daughters in Virginia Beach. He argued with his wife, drove away and began drinking.

He visited a friend, where he started drinking beer. He stopped at a Chesapeake restaurant, where he drank more beer. He visited a Virginia Beach bar, where he again drank beer. Peterson also admitted that he bought a six-pack of beer and drank in his van.

All told, Peterson had at least 10 beers before crashing his van into Rosbe’s BMW.

Griffith said Peterson’s blood-alcohol level tested at the hospital after the accident at 0.25, more than three times the 0.08 level for legal intoxication in Virginia.

“He wasn’t just a little drunk, he was very drunk,” Griffith said.

And it wasn’t the first time. Griffith produced evidence showing Peterson has a drunken-driving record dating to the 1970s, shortly after he graduated from Old Dominion University. Griffith also told the court that Peterson had a history of angry outbursts against police who stopped him for drunken driving. When the accident occurred, Peterson was out on bond for a drunken-driving arrest in Virginia Beach.

Peterson said he tried to elude police because he panicked and feared that he would be stopped by the same Virginia Beach officer who had stopped him before.

“I was not in a rational state of mind to deal with the police at that time,” Peterson said. “I was petrified when all this took place.”

But Griffin argued that Peterson knew exactly what he was doing and that a stiff sentence was necessary for others to be protected from drivers like Peterson.

“It was not like some mafia hit, but in many ways I submit that it was worse,” Griffith told the court. “Because the victims never saw it coming. For every one of us Arnold Peterson is always out there on the road.”