It just doesn’t feel like justice.
Robert Orabuena, of Gilroy, who was convicted in November of
misdemeanor vehicular manslaughter in the death of Salinas resident
Joseph Judnick in a traffic accident in San Benito County on July
4, was ordered to serve one year in county jail, the maximum
sentence.
It just doesn’t feel like justice.
Robert Orabuena, of Gilroy, who was convicted in November of misdemeanor vehicular manslaughter in the death of Salinas resident Joseph Judnick in a traffic accident in San Benito County on July 4, was ordered to serve one year in county jail, the maximum sentence.
The accident happened when Orabuena, 41, turned left into the path of Judnick, 48, who defense experts estimate was traveling on his Harley-Davidson motorcycle at a speed of 78 to 87 miles per hour in a 55 mph zone.
We have sympathy for both families – the Judnicks, who will be missing a beloved father and husband this holiday season, and the Orabuenas, who will be sending their own father and husband off to jail four days before Christmas.
This case smacks of a Greek tragedy or a Shakespearean play, dramatizing the horrific consequences that can come from two seemingly inconsequential errors in judgment.
These errors are ones every one of us have made in our lives – speeding, misjudging the timing of a left turn – yet in this case, one man paid with his life and another with his freedom.
The pain of the families involved and the consequences suffered were exacerbated by the mishandling of this case from the beginning by the San Benito County District Attorney’s office.
From the initial decision to try to prosecute Orabuena on trumped-up, ridiculous charges – a judge found one felony charge so lacking in merit that he tossed it – to the lack of sound prosecutorial judgment – everyone would have been much better served had a reasonable plea bargain been reached – the district attorney has made unfortunate choices at every turn.
Rather than a quiet, appropriate settlement for a tragic accident, the community has endured a noisy, contentious and expensive prosecution and trial that brought charges of racism and favoritism.
We can’t turn back the hands of time. We can’t tell Joseph Judnick to slow down, we can’t tell Robert Orabuena to delay that left turn, we can’t reverse decisions by the DA to vigorously prosecute this case, and we can’t change the one-year term the judge gave Orabuena.
Instead, we can hope Orabuena will at least be able to participate in the county jail’s work furlough program, that he can get any credits for good behavior available to him to shorten his sentence and that the community will support his family to minimize the negative impacts of his sentence on his wife and young son.
Let’s hope everyone – from jail and probation officials to neighbors and friends of both families – works together to make sure the consequences of those common driving mistakes Judnick and Orabuena made on that fateful July 4 afternoon don’t hurt anyone else – innocent family members, taxpayers, the community – any more than necessary.
If we can do that, we will at least move a little closer toward justice.
