Attemping to Avoid Consequences

Having lived my life as well as having raised a couple of children I am firmly convinced that the desire to avoid consequences plays a huge part in human behavior.  Even when the consequences of telling the truth or doing the right thing are relatively trivial we will still often opt for a lie.  Or fabricating a story.  Or cheating.  Or simply trying to get away with something by not admitting it.

I was reminded again just how strong the drive to avoid consequences is this week - in a very tragic way.  Many of you will recall that a close work colleague/friend of mine was killed in a cycling accident in October 2008.  This week, after months and months of legal maneuvering the person who drove the car involved in the accident chose to go to trial to defend herself (to avoid admitting quilt and accepting relatively minor consequences).  She was found guilty after less than 2 hours of deliberation.   She will be sentenced in July.

After the verdict was announced I received an email from the victim's wife in which she explained the many times that Rita Campos (the driver) had an opportunity to plead either guilty or no-contest to resolve the case.  As recently as the second day of the trial (meaning a good deal of the damning testimony against her had already been revealed) Ms. Campos kept negotiating for a plea agreement.  At that time she was offered 200 hours of community service and a $1,000 fine if she would plead.  It would be logical to think that the offers were significantly LESS than that before the trial.

Facing a maximum penalty of 1 year in jail and a fine of as much as $25,000 - not to mention several more days worth of paying her defense attorney - she decided once again not to plead.   Apparently, her desire to avoid consequence was so great that she was unwilling to accept that 5 weeks of  her labor and the cost of a medium quality big screen TV was appropriate punishment for being responsible for manslaughter.

And here's the kicker.  During the trial it came out that Ms. Campos had been cited during the last 6 years for two additional violations; being fully responsible for a vehicular accident and DUI.  One thing that the victim's wife desparately wanted was for Ms. Campos to lose her privilege to drive in California.  She won't get that.  At most Ms. Campos will lose her license for no more than 1 year - if she loses it at all.

I am stunned. Literally stunned that Ms. Campos would risk jail to avoid what amounts to an insulting slap on the risk for causing the death of my friend.  People are stupid.