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To: one_less who wrote (1834)3/8/2002 4:15:43 PM
From: Lazarus_Long  Read Replies (2) | Respond to of 21057
 
You'll have to wait a bit. JLA is on suspension. He's not yet heard for how long.

And other than that: Excellent post. And excellent points made in it. (Although I am sure there are those who disagree.)



To: one_less who wrote (1834)3/8/2002 4:17:17 PM
From: Lazarus_Long  Read Replies (2) | Respond to of 21057
 
Leave someone to die? No problem.

RETCH!

cnn.com

Police: Hit-run victim left to die in car
windshield

March 8, 2002 Posted: 5:52 AM EST (1052 GMT)

FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) -- A woman
accused of hitting a homeless man with
her car, driving home with him lodged in
her broken windshield and ignoring his
pleas as he bled to death in her garage,
is not the monster being portrayed by
prosecutors, her attorney says.

Police say Chante J. Mallard, 25, waited
two days for the man to die, ignoring his
pleas for help, and then dumped his body in
a park with the help of friends.

Mallard was arrested Wednesday night and
was released after posting bail. She faces
five years to life in prison if convicted.

"She is not the monster that police and
prosecutors are making her out to be," said
Mike Heiskell, Mallard's attorney. "She was
simply a frightened, emotionally distraught
young woman who had an accident,
panicked and made a wrong choice."

Heiskell said his client is guilty only of
failing to stop and render aid -- not murder.

He said the victim, Gregory Biggs, died a few hours after Mallard drove home and
was in her garage no more than 24 hours. He said her friends advised her not to call
for help and suggested dumping the body.

Biggs, whose body was found in a park on
October 27, suffered cuts and broken legs
but had no internal injuries that would have
caused his death, according to the medical
examiner's office.

"There's a pretty good possibility he'd be
alive if he'd gotten help, but she concealed
the body in the garage ... so that's why
she's charged with murder," said Fort
Worth police Lt. David Burgess.

When Biggs' body was found, authorities
suspected he had been hit by a car, but they had no leads until a tipster came
forward last week.

Biggs, 37, had struggled with mental illness and had been staying at a homeless
shelter, where workers said he often brought them flowers. He was estranged from
his mother and sister. He also had a 19-year-old son who only recently found out
about the tragic death, relatives said.

The son, Brandon Biggs, has questions for Mallard, but he says he isn't angry.

"I pray for her, actually," the high school senior told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram
in Friday's editions.

"I'd just like to talk to her -- just ask questions and see why, to get a better
understanding I suppose," he said.

Police reported finding Biggs' blood and
hair on Mallard's car, still in her garage
more than four months after the crash. The
windshield and front seats had been
removed.

The tipster told police that Mallard said she
was drinking and taking the drug Ecstasy
one night in October when her car hit the
man along a Fort Worth highway near her
house.

The tipster said Mallard drove home, had
sex with her boyfriend, then went back to
the garage to find Biggs still alive,
according to the arrest warrant affidavit.

Mallard later told investigators she apologized to the victim when she returned to
the garage several times, but she never called for help as he moaned and pleaded
with her, according to the affidavit.

"We intend to prosecute this fully," said Richard Alpert, a Tarrant County assistant
district attorney.

Mallard told investigators she removed the car seats and burned them because she
was afraid of being caught and going to jail, according to the affidavit. She planned
to burn the car and buy another one after receiving her income tax refund,
according to the affidavit.

Charges may be filed against the friends who helped dump Biggs' body, Burgess
said.