Broward case set for trial

While it’s unclear how many people were charged with manslaughter involving a car, there’s a 2014 case heading for a trial Monday in Broward.

Prosecutors have charged Lawton Cohen, 56, with running over a greatgrandmother with his Dodge Ram pickup truck twice in a Pompano Beach grocery store parking lot.

The previously convicted felon is facing counts of manslaughter with a weapon and leaving the scene of a deadly accident.

As long as the defense objects to the charge going to the jury, Cohen, if convicted as charged, could benefit if the Supreme Court ultimately decides a car is not a weapon. The Supreme Court’s decision likely won’t apply retroactively to cases already decided on appeal, experts say.

West Palm Beach defense attorney Scott Skier says it should be obvious to motorists not versed in the law that they are risking lengthy prison sentences if they decide to use their car to strike a person.

“If you use your car to chase someone or drive toward them for the intent of impact, then your vehicle is no longer transportation — it is a weapon,” he said, adding that even a plastic fork used in an attack “can be construed as a weapon.”

A recent spate of highprofile cases with innocent civilians run down by cars anguishes Debbie Poklemba, whose personal nightmare of her daughter’s death almost a decade ago underscores her belief that cars are deadly weapons.

There were national headlines in August when a car rammed into a crowd protesting a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Va., leading to the death of 32-year-old Heather Heyer and injuries to 19 others.

The victims were hit as they gathered to oppose a group that was protesting the removal of a monument of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee.

And there have been two deadly incidents in New York City in 2017: A May attack in Times Square killed a tourist; on Halloween a rental truck drove down a busy bicycle path in Manhattan, killing eight people in an act labeled as terrorism.

“Terrorists are using it,” Poklemba said of the car. “There’s no question it’s a weapon to kill people.”