Driver sentenced in pedestrian death
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Dale Dern drove a cab for 40 years in places such as New York City, Atlantic City and Pittsburgh.
That’s why, he said Monday, he should have known better than to have gotten in his Veterans Cab while intoxicated the evening of March 17, 2017.
He crashed, jumping a curb Downtown as he turned from Sixth Street onto Liberty Avenue and striking two pedestrians on the sidewalk outside the Heinz Hall courtyard.
Jaafar Bey, 55, was killed. Davon Burkes, 27, suffered knee injuries that required surgery and months of rehabilitation.
On Monday, Dern, 61, of Moon pleaded guilty to homicide by vehicle while driving under the influence and related counts. He will serve four to eight years in prison, as ordered by Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge Anthony M. Mariani.
“In this case, you caused immeasurable harm to separate people,” the judge said. “The law says you have to pay for that.”
The prosecution said that as Dern made the turn onto Liberty that evening, he fell out of the driver’s seat. Video and audio from a dashboard camera captured the crash. In the video, Assistant District Attorney Diana Page said, it sounds like the car is still accelerating after Dern came out of the seat.
“The video is quite clear, he fell out of his seat, and there is a sound that indicates the car went faster,” she said.
But Dern said he was unaware he’d struck anyone.
“I didn’t know how bad it was,” he said. “I didn’t know I hit anybody. I had just had an accident. I was confused. I didn’t want anybody to think when the accident happened,I didn’t care.
“I know I’ve ruined people’s lives, and I’m truly sorry for that.”
Defense attorney Lisa Middleman told Judge Mariani that her client had no criminal record at the time.
Judge Mariani also heard a victim-impact statement from Mr. Burkes. He told Judge Mariani that he is raising his three children on his own, and that his injuries required surgery and months of rehabilitation. He lost his job, meaning he has suffered financially and physically.
Orne Bey told the judge that he and Jaafar were two of 12 siblings, and that their family is very close.
Jaafar Bey, who took care of his parents, also had a daughter, and he cared for her three children while she worked.
“Her life’s been turned upside down,” her uncle said.
The Trump administration has nominated an Indiana County woman to serve as ambassador to Malta.
Christine J. Toretti, a Republican national committeewoman from Pennsylvania since 1997 and president and CEO of S.W. Jack Drilling Co. for more than two decades, would represent the United States in the Mediterranean island of 437,000 residents.
Ms. Toretti, 61, was a member of President Donald Trump’s transition team and previously served on the energy advisory committee for the Bush/ Cheney transition team and the national finance committee of George W. Bush’s presidential campaign.
Ms.Toretti has been a directorof the Pittsburgh branchof the Federal ReserveBank of Cleveland, andshe founded the Anne AnstineExcellence in Public ServiceSeries and the Dodie LondenExcellence in Public ServiceSeries to educate, empowerand advance Republicanwomen in politics. Sheis a graduate of the Universityof Virginia.