Five years ago David Black made a big mistake. He got into an illegal nighttime drag race against two other cars on O.B. Riley Road.
Danielle Gates, the driver of one of the other cars, lost control of her car on a curve and slammed into the side of an oncoming van. Gates and the passenger in her car were killed, and the young woman driving the van was seriously injured.
A year later, David Black made his really big mistake. Convinced he was not guilty of the charge of second-degree manslaughter that Deschutes County District Attorney Mike Dugan had brought against him, he decided to go to trial instead of cutting a deal.
Black was convicted and sentenced to six years and three months in prison. Judge Stephen Tiktin, in pronouncing the sentence, said he wished it didn’t have to be so harsh but he had no choice: Under Measure 11, his hands were tied.
Randy Clifford, the driver of the third car in the race, played it smart. He copped a plea to charges of criminally negligent homicide and fourth-degree assault. His sentence? Six months in prison and three years on probation.
Clifford has served his time and is a free man now. Black is still behind bars. Last week the Oregon Court of Appeals upheld his sentence without comment.
It’s instructive – and disgusting – to compare what happened to David Black with another notorious Deschutes County criminal case.
About a year ago, Eric Allen Brown’s Mercedes hit Kimberly Ann Potter as she was bicycling along Third Street. The car hit Potter so hard her body was dismembered. Brown didn’t stop to try to help. He didn’t call 911. Instead he tried to burn the Mercedes, then fled to California.
Brown eventually gave himself up, agreed to testify against others involved in the fatal hit-and-run and pleaded guilty to several charges. Instead of a long prison term, he only was sentenced to undergo drug rehab.
Mike Dugan said at the time of Black’s sentencing that illegal drag racing is a serious problem and must be discouraged. We can’t argue with that. But we have to wonder whether it was the real reason Dugan threw the book at Black.
DAs don’t like it when defendants want a trial. Criminal trials take up a lot of staff time and cost a lot of money. So DAs routinely bring the heaviest possible charges against defendants in the hope they’ll be intimidated into making a deal. And if they won’t, God help them.
David Black wasn’t punished for drag racing. He was punished for not playing ball with the DA’s office. And he was punished by a boneheaded law that forces judges to treat all offenders the same, regardless of the individual circumstances.
We’ve given Mike Dugan and Measure 11 THE BOOT before because of this case. We’re giving it to them again now, and we will keep on giving it to them as long as this shameful travesty of justice continues.
This article appears in Apr 3-9, 2008.
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The DA had a choice. He made it. David Black had a choice. He made it. The problem with calling doodoo on mandatory sentencing measures such as measure 11 and Jessica’s Law is that these laws were enacted for a very good reason. The reason is: Judges, if given the discretion you’d like, far too often lean toward a hug and a kiss and just maybe, a slap on the wrist, which REALLY pisses off the rest of us… who voted it in. The real travesty of justice was rampant before Measure 11, less so now. In any case, you can’t legislate away stupidity, which is the real issue here.
The problem with giving judges discretion is that they use it. For every David Black that would possibly get some slack, you’d have 352 people walking when they shouldn’t have. That’s the way it was before measure 11.
Mike Dugan did what all DA’s do. Is it honorable or moral or right? Hell no! They simply do it because they can. It simplifies their job.
But that doesn’t take away from the fact that David Black stupidly threw the dice and he lost. Black is not the ‘victim’ here, other than of himself.
Good comments Mark. David Black made many bad choices before, during and after the wreck. He is definately not a victim.
One question, Mark: Has Measure 11 reduced crime in Oregon? If your answer is “yes” I hope you have some solid numbers to back it up.
Does giving a convicted criminal a “do-over” reduce crime? Is it “Fair” to give him/her multiple shots for the sentence of their choosing…? I think not. Is Measure 11 a personal tool of Mike Dugan’s, something he can use at his discretion when he’s unhappy someone hasn’t taken the deal he offered? No, it is a state mandate. It was voted for by the people of Oregon. Mike Dugan is an elected official. He was voted into his office by the people of Deschutes County. When Mr. Black chose not to accept a plea agreement as offered but rather try his luck with a jury, did he really expect that a jury of his peers would be made up of street racers? Turns out they’re probably the same people who have consistently voted for Mike Dugan, the same ones who voted for Measure 11, and may even have voted back in the death penalty.
If you think that each case should be viewed, judged, and sentenced individually how can you at the same time whine because someone else go a different sentence…”It’s not Fair”.
Who said anything is guaranteed to be “Fair”?
PSS: In the first place, I see you didn’t answer my question. In the second place, of course nothing is “guaranteed to be fair” — but shouldn’t we try to make the administration of justice as fair as possible? Isn’t that, like, the whole point?
Important Note: It has been brought to our attention that Eric Allen Brown was not the driver of the car that killed Kimberly Potter. The car was driven by Christopher George Goodson and owned by Goodson’s father. Brown was a passenger in the car and helped burn it after the accident. He pleaded guilty to arson, hindering prosecution and delivering cocaine. Sorry for the error.
Following up: Goodson, the cokehead who was driving the speeding car that killed Kimberly Potter and then fled the scene of the accident, got sentenced to eight years yesterday — only one year and nine months more than David Black, who didn’t kill anybody and wasn’t even in either of the cars involved. The Black case was a travesty of justice and nobody will ever convince me otherwise.
What you didn’t hear about re: David Black is that # 1. He wasn’t raceing c Danielle @ the time the accident occured. He had two Friends in the car with him at the time of the accident that testified He was not racing Danielle. Their testimony was tossed aside. # 2 Dugan was out to make an example to deter Drag racing at the popular teenage 4 corner racing place. I don’t know if Race (Hispanic)played any part but I felt that David was discremenated against in many ways.# 3 Don’t forget David stopped and called 911 for help.#4 David had a clean record in all regards. The public dosen’t know the suppressed information in this case. I do because I was at the hearings. LD
By the way, David did not have a jury, the judge was the jury. Write letters to Gov. Kulongoski telling him to pardon the rest of David’s term