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Man convicted of killing bicyclist with his pickup
By adamg on Thu, 10/16/2014 - 3:29pm
A Suffolk Superior Court jury today found Michael Ahern of Dorchester guilty of felony motor vehicle homicide for running down a bicyclist on Morrissey Boulevard in 2012, the Suffolk County District Attorney's office reports.
Prosecutors convinced the jury that Doan Bui, 63, bicycling home after a fishing trip, died because Ahern rammed him with enough force to throw him 150 feet from the point of impact. Bui was traveling in the right-hand lane of Morrissey southbound near Malibu Beach.
Evidence also proved that State Police responding to Ahern’s 911 call detected a strong odor of alcohol on his breath, found him to be unsteady on his feet, and observed his eyes to be bloodshot and glassy. Troopers testified that he slurred his speech and claimed to be unaware that he had hit anyone. When asked if he had been drinking, he said he “may have had one” drink at the Slate Bar and Grill, in which he had an ownership interest.
Ahern, who has two arson convictions from 1989, faces between 1 and 15 years behind bars, along with a 15-year revocation of his license. He is scheduled for sentencing on Oct. 31.
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Comments
15 Please
Let's hope for the maximum here!
I'll be shocked if he spends
I'll be shocked if he spends 12 months in the slammer.
I know
Yeah, but let's hope.
Keep the bikes off the
Keep the bikes off the streets. They think they own the road. Darting in and out of cars. Can't Monday morning quarterback a place you were not at. Comm Ave is a prime example. Bikes are dangerous. They need rules too! Sounds like this case is being used as an example by the bike community.
this is not the place for
this is not the place for your comment.
a man has died because another man cannot control himself or his vehicle.
the man who was on his bicycle has the right to the road under the law, as does anyone else.
We ALL own the road
It sounds like you have a problem with sharing common resources.
Do you complain when other people in your neighborhood are using the faucet at the same time as you have your faucet on too?
I love your descriptive phrase "Darting in and out of cars" when the very nature of traffic consists of multiple vehicles driving together on the road. One could just as easily say "Cars dart in and out of bicylces" or "Cars dart in and out of cars." There are other people on the road besides yourself. Deal with it.
Bicycles are not dangerous. Being on one around ignorant drivers that think they have the right of way above and over everyone else is dangerous however.
Please stop.
A man who was obeying all rules of the road is dead, because someone drank a lot of alcohol, got behind the wheel of a 4,000-pound bludgeoning weapon, and killed him. And you have chosen to use this opportunity to wax lyrical about your own hobbyhorse. You very obviously have no idea what you are talking about, and are trying to steer the conversation away from the very real tragedy, and the very-deserved punishment meted out against the perpetrator. Please stop doing that.
Yeah!! Bikes should stay off the roads
to make more room for drunk drivers.
Brilliant logic. Slow clap.
Bikes are not dangerous
Cars are dangerous.
Drivers kill 30,000 people a year.
You have to really googlemine to find more than one or two instances per year where a cyclist killed anyone other than themselves.
Please put your entitlement away, open your drivers manual, and stay off the road until you find your clue.
Trololo, don't feed this guy
Trololo, don't feed this guy
Thank you
Now I will feed your reasonableness to note the utter insanity of the post to which you reply.
But yeah, total troll.
Whoa, he will ACTUALLY do
Whoa, he will ACTUALLY do prison time? Hope he gets the max 15 years, since its basically murder.
Don't assume anything. He
Don't assume anything. He hasn't been sentenced yet. My money's on a short sentence, suspended.
Justice
Give this ahole the max.
There isn't a single part of this story to feel good about.
sigh.
He was convincted
Most of the time when a driver kills someone they claim it was an unavoidable accident and the police/DA don't pursue it. So I feel ever so slightly better that at least there's a conviction here. But it won't bring the guy back and it's little comfort to the family.
I dunno. That just doesn't do it for me.
"Yay some guy is in jail."
There isn't a single part of this story to feel good about.
Do you feel that way when all
Do you feel that way when all murderers are found guilty or just murderers who kill pedestrians and bicyclists?
Yay, the taxpayers get to pay
Yay, the taxpayers get to pay for this wonderful human being's room and board for the next fifteen years. What's not to feel good about?
/sarcasm
I can't tell
I can't tell just what your point is. Are you saying that Pickup Guy should go free, so he continues to pay taxes? Or are you saying he should be killed? If it's that second one, you should know that it costs more to execute someone than it does to keep them in prison for life. 15 years is a bargain in comparison.
Or maybe you were trying to make some other point entirely, in which you failed.
Failed HOW? I thought the
Failed HOW? I thought the point was quite simple. THERE'S NOTHING GOOD HERE. Saying that someone going to jail for a crime is "good" is like saying it's "good" that new appliances went on sale the week after your house got flooded. The situation sucks, period.
Well, when you put it that way...
Point taken. But it wasn't you making the comment, and he didn't put it that way, so he failed to make whatever point he had. If that point had been as clear to me as it apparently was to you, we wouldn't be having this exchange.
Yay, the taxpayers get to pay
If it makes you feel any better, there's no way he will be in prison for fifteen years, or anything close.
Sorry
I'm sorry the criminal justice system failed in its mission to make you feel good.
It's a great community in which to be an (expletive)
And the only way you're gonna stop it is to kidnap a judge's kid and tie them to a busy roadway during a prime drunk driving hour a la Snidley Whiplash.
Judges aren't the problem
The unwillingness to prosecute murder-by-car is the problem.
No Swirrly....
Judges in bench trials find these drivers innocent all the time (as do juries). These cases aren't prosecuted because the DA or police don't want them to go forward, they aren't prosecuted because judges, juries, and grand juries will more likely than not side with the drivers.
It has been my experience
It has been my experience that some police do have a prejudice against pedestrians and bicyclists and a corresponding prejudice in favor of drivers of motor vehicles and that they will allow that prejudice to guide their responses to reported crimes and accidents. I have spoken with others that have had similar experiences so I know I'm not alone in saying so. There is a widespread hatred on many levels of society and that definitely includes the well paid and comfortable public sector.
Murder?
Are you telling us those drivers get up every morning, get in their cars and drive around with a sole purpose of finding and flattening bike riders? That's murder, everything else is either an accident or, if booze or drugs were involved, a vehicular homicide (i.e. manslaughter.) Now, I'm sure everyone agrees that vehicular homicide should definitely get more than just a few years in the slammer, but calling it murder (i.e. premeditated) makes you sound like a paranoid freak who needs to up her meds.
She needs meds, you need a dictionary?
What you've described is first degree murder, which is only one legal classification of murder. There are others.
You're both a bit off
The anon did go first degree, but even second degree involves a level of intent. To use this sad case as an example, the bicyclist flips a driver off as he pedals through a red light (and not, this is not the time for that argument.) When the light turns green, the driver takes off with his wheels spinning and the full intent of hitting the bike. To show said intent, the driver's right tires go up on the sidewalk while striking the bicycle at high speed at the center of the grill of his vehicle. That's murder.
Manslaughter would be a willful action that could cause a death, but death was not the intention of the act.
It would appear that "motor vehicle homicide" is a concept that drivers should know that their vehicles can cause death, and by taking a reckless action (running a red light, driving the wrong way up a road) causes a death. So, in the last example, the driver would have killed someone, but since the action was not intentionally to cause death, murder would not be the proper term or charge.
Note- I am not a lawyer, but I did learn the difference between first and second degree murder and manslaughter in high school religion class. (Don't ask)
Heya Erik G...
Heya Erik G...
@ the risk of possibly steering this very sad & real tragedy further, Im curious as to why you feel that Mr Doan Bui (RIP, the man killed here) was in fact "obeying all the rules...?"
like allot of fine people here have mentioned before me, that lights, blinkers, and helmets are key to biking safely in this great city....but yet theres not a single mention of what Mr Bui used to safley siliihouette him on that busy blvd in the press....!
& furthermore, by just reading all the info on the news and information here, the 'perpetrator' here was not in fact convicted of driving under the influence. The stories you read online and in the news suggest he was 'slurry & unsteady on his feet", but even the DA's report on this matter shows the 'perp' wasnt arrested at the scene, wasn't given a breathalyzer or had his blood taken when he was treated that night.
he IN FACT was arrested the following day..! (an embarrasment tyo the state police who in turn made it a mission to 'fix' what they may have screwed up..or just as likely, the police didnt thing he was indedd drunk, but got crap from higher ups that they needed to make it policy to arrest drivers who cause death.. But make no mistake, your per wasnt arrested or charged till the foliwng day. & he wasnt convicted for "oui.."
These 'news stories' we are reading arent the full picture.
Its no doubt a no win, and sad tale as others have mentioned, but in the end, the "perp" as you say, never left the scene, and complied to the police, They in turn let him go home and he in turn went to the hospital under advisement for his well being.
I feel bad for the this whole thing, becuase ultimately it was probably just a simple 'accident' with Mr Bui not wearing protective gear or reflectors and a businessman driving home after a drink or two , late at night on a busy road.
The real lesson for me is how easy it is to be a good, God fearing, never been in trouble kind of person, and with a distraction of any kind, can cause a death & god forbid you have a glass a wine or two, as well & all my parents and theyre old giddy friends do, can possibly commit such a serious felony...
rip to Mr. Bui
& hopefully the judge has an understandable mercy on Mr Ahern, who by noting all the positive impacts he has had in his community, can maybe use this sad tale as a lesson for us all..
Heya Jakka
Your man was just convicted by a jury of his peers of killing someone while driving drunk. I hope he's more contrite about this than you are.
OUI
Would have been a conviction on a lesser charge. The jury instead believed prosecutors and convicted him on the most serious charge. Per the DA's office:
I stand corrected
I thought what I had read was negligent operation, but not OUI...
Pardons
Oh, I see
Its all okay if you are drunk?
Like, getting behind the wheel of a car is such a natural and autonomic thing to do that it requires no thought - or premeditation - whatsoever? No opportunity to think "gee, I'm too drunk to do this and might kill?"?
If you shot randomly into a crowd with a gun in MA, you would do time. How is getting behind the wheel drunk any different? Drivers need to be held to the level of responsibility which befits the hazard they pose to society - and I say that as someone who drives.
Of course, your excuses for drunks are in line with your very weak understanding of pharmacology.
Not Again
Murder is the deliberate killing of another person with no mitigating factors. You can read more about it, including how it's different from other killings, at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder.
Now that you understand what murder is, would you please cite your sources and show us all the intentional killings with malice aforethought committed with cars that are going unprosecuted?
"Murder by Car"
Is about as helpful a phrase as "suicide by bike." Please stop calling these cases murder when you know (or should know) that they aren't. Just the simplest Google search will tell you the difference between murder and motor vehicle homicide.