Sunday, January 30, 2011

Criminal Trail set for Feb. 28

The criminal trial of the driver who killed Sylvia is set for February 28. See the comment to the last post. The driver was allowed to withdraw his guilty plea. The civil trail against the driver and his employer, Leff Electric, will hopefully happen in late spring. Francoise and I will of course be in Cleveland for both trials and would love to hear from any of you. Steve

2 comments:

  1. Thanks Steve for posting this notice. I look forward to further updates.

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  2. Steve Bingham said...
    The last entry about the trial ending with a plea should have been updated long ago. This is from news page of the Sylvia Bingham Fund website: "TRIAL UPDATE: Truck driver withdraws guilty plea Posted 10/12/2010 - The truck driver who killed Sylvia last year and pleaded guilty last month to aggravated vehicular homicide while under the influence of drugs was allowed on October 8 to withdraw his plea of guilty. He claimed he was pressured into agreeing to plead guilty and submitted a letter to the court critical of his own lawyer. As he had not yet been formally sentenced (that was to happen October 25), the Ohio standards for withdrawing a guilty plea are very lax. For Francoise and me, this is of course a very bitter pill and a great disappointment, not just because we now once again have to face the prospect of sitting through a criminal trial but also because we had had some measure of comfort, believing that Herschel Roberts was truly remorseful. We expect that a new trial date might be set for December and hope that the defendant’s new lawyer will not seek any further continuance. Fifteen months after Sylvia was killed is far to long to wait for an outcome. We have also filed a civil lawsuit against Mr. Roberts and Leff Electric Company. That trial is scheduled for next spring." The current trial date is now set for Feb. 28 and Francoise and I plan to be there. Once again, please post your memories of Sylvia on this blog. We want her spirit to never be forgotten.
    steve

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