Column: Doctor’s sentence highlights legal system’s shortcomings

Normally, a doctor doesn’t race his fancy car, drive into oncoming traffic and kill two innocent people.

But when that happened more than three years ago in Laguna Beach, I immediately wondered if he would get off with a slap on the wrist.

He will hire a good lawyer, work the system and walk, I thought.

And that’s pretty much what happened.

Dr. Robert McFarland Pettis of Laguna copped a plea last week and is getting 240 hours of community service and three years of probation for two misdemeanor counts of vehicular manslaughter.

The first misdemeanor was for Alberto Casique, 47, of Anaheim. The second for Armando Gonzalez, 38, of Santa Ana.

Both were gardeners, coming into work at 6:40 a.m. on April 2, 2013 for Stewart’s Landscaping.

Gonzalez, the passenger, was the father of two and an illegal Mexican immigrant for 20 years, according to his family, who had received his green card in the mail on the day he died.

Casique was driving his older model Honda Accord toward Laguna right before El Toro Road on Hwy. 133.

Pettis admitted as part of the deal that he was driving at an unsafe speed, according to court documents. Pettis was in his Tesla Model S, which is one of the quickest production cars on the road with 0-60 mph times of less than 3 seconds.

After he hit Casique’s car head-on, Pettis tried to help, and he has expressed immediate and frequent remorse for his actions.

“Dr. Pettis admitted his excessive speed and his great sorrow from the very beginning,” defense attorney Paul Meyer said in a statement.

The victims’ families, meanwhile, have reportedly forgiven Pettis, but nonetheless are proceeding with a civil lawsuit that is scheduled for next spring.

Setting aside the details of this case — for example, how could the prosecution not prove felony gross negligence? — one wonders how many times we need to see these types of outcomes and not get dismayed.

Most involve some level of privilege: rich or poor, white or black, connected or disenfranchised.

At some point you have to ask, can justice be bought?

And it’s not outright bribery. It’s the system, the rules, the loopholes.

Ironically, the justice system is unbalanced on both ends of the spectrum. It lets off those who should do time and incarcerates thousands of nonviolent, first-time offenders, who are often black.

The ACLU published a landmark report in 2013 that detailed the numbers called “A Living Death: Life without Parole for Nonviolent Offenses.”

“For 3,278 people, it was nonviolent offenses like stealing a $159 jacket or serving as a middleman in the sale of $10 of marijuana. An estimated 65% of them are black,” the reports states. “Many of them were struggling with mental illness, drug dependency or financial desperation when they committed their crimes. None of them will ever come home to their parents and children. And taxpayers are spending billions to keep them behind bars.”

In addition, there are a variety of mandatory minimum sentences in California that force judges to give jail or prison time.

A first-degree assault, for example, is five to 20 years.

Burglary with a weapon is also five to 20 years.

If you refuse to stop your boat when ordered to do so by a law enforcement official and you cause injury, it’s one to five years.

If you assault or rob an “elderly, blind, disabled, pregnant, or mentally retarded person,” it’s two to five years.

And yet, killing two people yields zero jail time.

I’m sure Pettis wishes he had that morning back. During the hearing, he said he prays for the families every day.

But it’s not really about Pettis.

It’s about a legal system that is no longer blind.

DAVID HANSEN is a writer and Laguna Beach resident. He can be reached at [email protected].