Posts tagged "hit and run"

Marlene Resendiz was 17-years-old, engaged to be married and, according to her mother, dreamed of becoming a doctor. In late 2007, Marlene was struck and killed in a fatal car accident as she sprinted across East Grand Avenue in Econdido.

The car Tiffany St. Ives was driving carried Marlene 300 feet, the length of a football field, before St. Ives stopped to let her slide off the hood. Once Marlene's broken body had disappeared from the windshield, St. Ives sped off, leaving the teenager to die in the road.

From that day, until the day she was arrested, St. Ives did everything she could to destroy evidence of the hit-and-run. She had the car repainted, fixed and attempted to find someone who would get rid of it for her in Mexico. The man she approached for this eventually turned her in.

St. Ives was semi-famous in the San Diego area for her animal rescue farm, Purple Cow & Friends. Many who attended the trial could not understand how someone who cared so much for animals could show such disregard for human life.

The hit and run car accident that cost Taylor Tolleson his cycling career happened almost a year ago, but he still deals with the pain on a daily basis. The brain injury he suffered has caused him memory loss and he suffers from mood swings. The pain from broken vertebra in his back prevent him from hunching over his bike for too long, robbing him of the pleasure he used to derive from long bike rides.

Last week Tolleson sued the suspected hit and run driver, 25-year-old Thomas John Legan, and his father - to whom the car was registered. Even though Legan fled the scene of the accident, he has yet to be charged with a felony hit and run. He was released from jail on bond.

However, Santa Cruz District Attorney Bob Lee is taking another look at the case and may choose to reopen the investigation into the car accident. Legan has been given several speeding tickets in the past and was arrested last December on suspicion of DUI. He pleaded guilty to a lesser charge.

Taylor Tolleson was a professional cyclist who had competed several times in the Tour of California, but his career ended suddenly last July when he became the victim of a hit-and-run driver. Now, Tolleson is suing the driver that knocked him off his motorcycle and put an end to his competitive bicycling career.

The accident occurred last July on Highway 1 near the Fishhook Interchange. Tolleson was riding his motorcycle toward Santa Cruz when, just before midnight, he was allegedly struck from behind by an Audi driven by Thomas John Legan, of Aptos. According the California Highway Patrol, Tolleson was pulled under the car and then spit out into another lane of traffic.

Tolleson suffered a number of serious injuries including a broken vertebrae and a brain hemorrhage that led to a traumatic brain injury. According to Tolleson, the extent of the injuries has made a return to his professional cycling impossible. In the recently filed lawsuit, he is seeking damages for past and future medical expenses, lost wages, and compensation for the long-term effects of the traumatic brain injury.

A $75 million wrongful death lawsuit was filed earlier this month against Tiffany St. Ives in San Diego County court. St. Ives was arrested in February for her role in a fatal hit-and-run accident that killed Marlene Resendiz back in 2007.

Resendiz was struck as she crossed a street in Escondido - just weeks before she was to be married. Immediately following the accident, St. Ives continued driving, carrying Resendiz for nearly 200 yards before slowing down enough for Resendiz to slide off the car. She then sped away.

St. Ives is known throughout San Diego for her animal sanctuary, The Purple Cow, which is a registered corporation. The attorney representing Resendiz's family believes that St. Ives may have been on the job at the time of the accident, bringing into play any insurance the sanctuary may have. St. Ive's is also believed to have substantial assets.

A jury in San Diego County reached a guilty verdict in the trial of a Deborah Felix - who faced charges stemming from the fatal accident that killed Cydil Deann Kohlmeyer last November. Felix was convicted of both gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated and a misdemeanor hit and run for her role in the accident.

She faces sentencing from El Cajon Judge Lantz Lewis in mid-May.

Los Angeles bikers are in an uproar over the LAPD's decision not to file hit-and-run charges against a female driver who rear-ended a bicyclist in early January.

On the morning of the sixth, Ed Magos was riding his bicycle to work when he was struck from behind by the driver of a Porsche Cayenne. The driver stopped, briefly, got out of her vehicle, yelled for someone to "call 911," and then sped off.

She turned herself in later that day.

Since the driver initially stopped at the scene, police determined that she was not guilty of a hit-and-run car accident. Still, as many have pointed out, this doesn't exactly correlate with California law regarding such incidents.

The family of a hit and run victim in Escondido are hoping for closure in a case that has stretched out for over two years.

In late 2007, Marlene Resendiz was crossing a street in Escondido when she was struck by a driver, and thrown onto the car's hood. The driver continued for several hundred yards, then slowed down to allow Resendiz to fall off the hood, and sped away.

Resendiz did not survive the accident.

On Tuesday, Tiffany St. Ives, a local animal activist, was arrested after a witness linked her to the hit and run, claiming St. Ives had asked him to repair her damaged car and, later, take it to Mexico and sell it. It's not known why the man, who was not identified, waited so long to come forward.

Just how old does one have to be before he or she is considered too old to get behind the wheel? A pedestrian hit-and-run case in San Diego has brought that question to the fore.

On the night of January 29th, a Rancho Buena Vista High School freshman was struck and mortally injured as he and friends skateboarded down Thibido Road. The driver then sped off. Initially left with little more than a car make and model, police may have been given a break during a candlelight vigil which took place the following night.

A 92-year-old man, driving by the gathering, stopped and told a deputy that he thought he may have hit an animal the previous night, at about the same time the hit-and-run took place. While no charges have been brought yet against the elderly man, he is considered a suspect and police have continued to investigate his story.