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And I think to myself, what a wonderful world

ogopogo3

Gone But Not Forgotten
(ACCOUNT RETIRED)
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Oct 25, 2001
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FORT WORTH, Texas — A nurse's aide hit a homeless man with her car, drove home with him stuck headfirst in her broken windshield and ignored his cries for help as he bled to death in her garage over the next two or three days, police say.

Chante Mallard allegedly told police she periodically went into the garage, apologizing to him but doing nothing to help.

Mallard, 25, was arrested on murder charges Wednesday and was later released on bond. She faces from five years to life in prison and a fine up to $10,000.

"I'm going to have to come up with a new word. Indifferent isn't enough. Cruel isn't enough to say," Tarrant County prosecutor Richard Alpert told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. "Heartless? Inhumane? Maybe we've just redefined inhumanity here."

Police said 37-year-old Gregory Biggs probably would have lived had he received immediate help. When the man finally died, Mallard and her friends put the stranger's body in the trunk of another car and dumped it in a park, authorities said.

Mallard allegedly told police she had been drinking and using the drug Ecstasy the night Biggs was hit. The impact hurled him headfirst through the windshield, leaving his broken legs protruding onto the hood.

With the man still lodged in the windshield, the woman panicked and drove a few miles to her Fort Worth home, parked her car in the garage and lowered the door as Biggs pleaded for help, according to police.

When Biggs' body was found Oct. 27, evidence pointed to a hit-and-run, investigators said.

Lt. David Burgess said police were contacted a few weeks ago by someone who said she heard Mallard at a party talking about the incident.

Mallard allegedly told a friend details when asked why she was no longer driving her car.

A search of Mallard's house turned up the damaged car with blood, hair and other evidence, authorities said. The car's seats were found in the back yard, and one had been burned.

Mallard's attorney, Mike Heiskell, said: "I think this is overreaching on the part of the prosecution and the police and, in the end, I believe the law will shake out that this was simply a case of failure to stop and render aid."

The medical examiner's office said Biggs suffered no internal injuries and apparently died from loss of blood and shock.

Mallard told investigators she went into the garage a few times and apologized to the victim, but never called for help as he pleaded with her. She wouldn't say why she wouldn't get help, Burgess said.

Charges may be filed against some of Mallard's friends who helped her take Biggs' body to the park, Burgess said. Police do not yet know if anyone besides Mallard knew about the man while he was still alive.

Medical examiner's records listed Biggs' address as a homeless shelter in Fort Worth. His mother, Meredith Biggs, said she had recently begun looking for him.

"How could she just leave him like that to die?" she told the Star-Telegram. "Drugs and alcohol wear off, so why didn't she get him some help? I should have prayed more."
 
Jesus, I hope thats an urban myth but it has a ring of truth about it..

:eek!!!!:
 
What a creepy tale. Truly horrifying if the facts are as given.

And i know lawyers are paid to talk b*ll*cks, but this takes the biscuit:

Mallard's attorney, Mike Heiskell, said: "I think this is overreaching on the part of the prosecution and the police and, in the end, I believe the law will shake out that this was simply a case of failure to stop and render aid."

I dread to think what some of Ms. Mallard's patients may have suffered.
 
On this occasion I am truly lost for words . . .

:confused: :eek:

Carole
 
Well...... I thought i was pretty de-sensitised and jaded to just about anything i read in the news, but this has totally shocked me.

"I'm going to have to come up with a new word. Indifferent isn't enough. Cruel isn't enough to say," Tarrant County prosecutor Richard Alpert told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. "Heartless? Inhumane? Maybe we've just redefined inhumanity here."

I couldn't agree more.

:eek:

--kiel--
 
The article in Breaking News quotes some doctors as saying that the man probably died in a few hours, not three days, and that a lot of the worst allegations about the hit-and-run driver were made by someone who hates her. I think the lawyer also said that she didn't do anything because she followed a friend's advice.

Not that that excuses what she did in any way. She still drove home with a man - possibly still conscious - embedded in her windshield and just left him there to die. Mind boggling - just can't imagine what went through her head.
 
So, someone kills a human being & we have that parasitic bunch of ar***holes called "lawyers" make excuses for the behaviour of their "defendant"!!!!!!

When are we going to see through these b****erds & hang them from the lamposts????
 
Old Will was of a like mind, it seems:

"The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers."

(Henry IV, Part 2, act 4, sc. 2)
 
This takes neglect by the medical profession to a new low,but it does give the term "the window seat"a hole new meaning.YUCK.
 
This story reminds me of something that happened a few years ago near here , it isn't a UL , this really happened . A man ( my mothers partner was their gardener at this time ) was driving home to his nice big house one night when he spotted a car leave the road in front of him and drive into the ditch ( a Somerset ditch or rhine - bigger and wetter than your average ditch ) . He stopped and looked down at the wreck,he saw the car was full of young people,saw one of them move . He went home and went to bed . I believe the next day he reported the accident to the police . All the people in the car were dead, I think about four or five teengers,foreign students who were staying in a local hostel. They had all drowned . This man had a tractor,he could have pulled them out . Why didn't he? He said he thought they were joyriders and deserved what they got . He was some sort of local counciller or magistrate and he got LET OFF !
 
It's the same the 'ole world over
Ain't it all a crying shame
It's the rich wot gets the gravy
And the poor wot gets the blame :(
 
Yet more proof that while it's quite hard to kill a human being deliberately it's terribly easy to do it by accident, ignorance or indifference.

Cujo
 
Is there a law against it in the UK or US? I know as a result of the Princess Diana car crash that the French have a "Good Samaritan" law.
I think if you witness an accident you have to stick around, but what if you just come across the aftermath and decide not to get involved, with fatal results?
 
(I am not a lawyer, but I was still with my ex while she went through law school...)

Under English Common Law, you are not generally required to render aid to total strangers if you are minding your own business and happen to notice them in trouble. So that is the "default" law of the land in England and the US.

There are many reasons why you might have a positive legal to render aid. Obviously most emergency workers, even off duty ones, have such a duty. You usually have a positive duty to act if the endangered party is a close relative. There are lots of niggly rules that require lawyers to interpret for situations in between.

BTW, the highest level of duty recognized by the law is called a 'fiduciary duty'. In a nutshell, such a person is required to be both zealous and competent at a particular task. Examples would be your doctor in protecting and promoting your health, your lawyer in giving legal advice and advocating your interests, and the CEO of Enron in protecting the investment of its shareholders and debtors. In theory, 'innocent' incompetence is not a sufficient defense for egregious mistakes made by those individuals.

Some regions have enacted laws requiring aid under certain circumstances. For example, the state of Alaska (in the USA) requires you to investigate and render aid to any apparently stalled car you drive past during a snowstorm.
 
Unders International Maritime law, all vessels are required to go to the assistance of another in distress.

If the captain feels he cannot repond to a distress call (for example, if it might endanger his own vessel, or he cannot possibly get there in time to assist) he must record his reasons in the log.

If no-one else replies to the distress message, he would also be obliged to relay it to increase the chances of other vessels hearing it.
 
I'm pretty sure that in France and Belgium 'non-assistance to a person in distress' (direct translation, sorry if it's a bit weird) is punishable by law. What that entails exactly, I'm not sure.
 
But the French, as fellow members of the EC, are guilty of breaking their own law, 'cause they're always being so bloody obstructive and arrogant towards the Brits. Just cos we thrashed them at Agincourt and Waterloo . . . sorry, I shall hie myself to the Whinging thread . . .

Carole
 
Nay Carole, what thy say tis' true!

Do not distress thysel' about them froggy b****eds!!!!!!!!!
 
beakboo said:
Oy, that's racism, no matter how you dress it up. :mad:

Race = A tribe, nation, or people,regarded as common ancestor!!!

Sounds reasonable to me beakboo!!!!

Dunno' what we have in common with them Gallic b*****'s.

Except at the other end of a clothyard flight!!!!!!!!!! Tis' what our right arms are for!!!!!
 
The only things they're good at is perfume and wine, I'll give them that. But what about the last war, bloody de Gaulle couldn't get to England quick enough, then afterwards he was acting like a bloody hero and wouldn't let us join the common market . . . mutter, mutter, mutter . . .

:hmph:

Carole
 
Oooh, can I bitch about the French too? Bloody arrogant bastards, always treating us Belgians like the moronic country cousins. Ha! Most Belgians speak better French than they do. And our food is nicer. And we've got more cheeses than them. So there.
 
Sally said:
Oooh, can I bitch about the French too? Bloody arrogant bastards, always treating us Belgians like the moronic country cousins. Ha! Most Belgians speak better French than they do. And our food is nicer. And we've got more cheeses than them. So there.

Sally,

and don't forget your killer beers and the fact the majority of the country is fully bi-lingual (French and Vlaams)... Sorry, I'm a Belgophile :D

8¬)
 
I really like the French. Except for some Parisians- I suppose everyone has their limits. But the non Parisian French that I've met have been, dare I say it, nicer than the English.
Shall I get my coat?:p
 
Now people I won't have anything said against the French. I was going to come up with a string of racial stereotypes, explain why each one is not the fault of the French and then conclude with "unlike say, the Krauts".

Then I realised that everyone would fail to understand that I was winding you up. So instead I'll say this:

I've decided that Carole and David are joking, that nobody on this list seriously is bigoted enough to hate any nation, even the Germans, due to some perceived slight or the actions of individuals.

We are all bigger and cleverer than that. We are all wise enough to acknowledge that we all share this planet; that we, Humanity, are a family and that, although we don't always see eye to eye, like any family we are somewhat dependent upon each other.

A Patriot is someone who is prepared to die for their Country. You may feel that your snipes at other nationalities is somehow forfilling your patriotic duty. You'd be wrong. I'm asking, no TELLING, you to move one step beyond that. Take the global view and realise that we are one. Stop this foolishness and start some other foolishness instead.

As you can probably tell I've had a rough day and I'm, for once, not laughing.

Niles Calder
 
Beakboo flies over and strokes poor Niles in what she hopes is a friendly, comforting way. :)
 
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