Thursday, September 02, 1999
Mahoney case puts focus on DUI law
Little has changed since 1988 bus crash
BY JANE PRENDERGAST
The Cincinnati Enquirer
LaGRANGE, Ky. — If Larry Mahoney killed 27 people today in a drunken driving accident in Kentucky, his prison sentence probably would not be much different than the 16 years he got a decade ago.
Public outcry for stricter sentences for drunken drivers who kill, prompted in large part by his fiery 1988 crash into a church bus packed with youths, underscores how little Kentucky laws have changed.
“That's something we've got to fix,” said Sara McKinney, public policy liaison for the Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) chapter in Louisville.
With his “good time” figured in, Mr. Mahoney was let out of prison early Wednesday. He walked out of the Kentucky State Reformatory and was whisked away by family members. He served 91/2 years.
Ms. McKinney said that one well-written statute in Kentucky could take care of both drunken-driving deaths and another big problem MADD sees — shock-probation releases such as one recently granted to a University of Kentucky foot ball player who killed two friends in a drunken wreck.
“There's just such a wide swing in how these cases are handled,” she said.
The night of May 14, 1988, Mr. Mahoney was so drunk his blood alcohol level was more than twice the legal limit for driving in Kentucky. He entered Interstate 71 driving north on the southbound lanes near Carrollton. He didn't even know he had crashed his pickup truck into a church bus, killing 27 people and injuring a dozen others, until he woke up in a hospital the next morning with minor injuries.
It was the deadliest drunken-driving wreck in U.S. history.
Karolyn Nunnallee's 10-year-old daughter Patty was the youngest victim to die in the 1988 crash.
Ms. Nunnallee became a crusader after the accident. She is now national president of MADD. She is not angry at Mr. Mahoney, but troubled by the system that sentenced him to only 16 years in prison for his crimes. The 27 manslaughter charges actually brought a lesser sentence than the 12 assaults he was convicted of.
“Larry Mahoney, no matter what he is labeled, should be grateful he can go back to some sort of a normal life,” Ms. Nunnallee said.
Then and now, Kentucky does not have a statute dealing specifically with vehicular deaths, and no law that applies in particular to drunken-driving deaths. That's in contrast to many states, including Ohio, where intoxicated drivers causing death can be charged with offenses such as aggravated vehicular homicide.
The lack of a specific statute in Kentucky leaves prosecutors to decide which other law best applies. MADD officials don't like the patchwork that creates. Many prosecutors agree a consistent standard would be better.
“This can be a really confusing thing,” said Willie Mathis, commonwealth attorney for Boone and Gallatin counties and a prosecutor for about 25 years. “It's a tough thing for prosecutors to plug into homicide statutes.”
He recently prosecuted a man, Jose Malagon-Soto, who was charged with causing one death while he was driving drunk. Mr. Malagon-Soto, whose blood-alcohol level was more than twice the legal limit, pleaded guilty to second-degree manslaughter and two counts of wanton endangerment and was sentenced to 15 years in prison.
Contrast that with the case of former University of Kentucky football player Jason Watts. He was released after serving less than four months for a November 1998 wreck that killed a teammate and another friend. He pleaded guilty in March to two counts of reckless homicide and was sentenced to the maximum penalty, 10 years in prison.
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