Post by WaTcHeR on Feb 7, 2006 12:26:41 GMT -5
Officer Kim Gooch
02/06/2006 - The mother of a college student who was hit by the car of an intoxicated Metro police sergeant told a court yesterday that the former officer got off lightly compared with her daughter, who suffered permanent brain injuries.
Under a plea agreement endorsed by the victim's family, Kim Gooch was able to avoid a felony conviction and possible prison time by pleading guilty to three misdemeanor charges.
She will serve 30 days in jail and almost three years on probation, and perform 250 hours working with victims of brain and spinal cord injuries.
Marrijane Jones told the court that the life of her daughter, Micah Jones, was forever changed on July 9, 2004.
"We are not vindictive to you, Ms. Gooch, as evidenced by the plea agreement,'' Jones testified. "You will not have a felony on your record or serve time in prison. We only wish Micah was receiving the light sentence you're receiving today."
The mother described the uncertainty and grief the family faced, first, after being told their daughter might not live and, later, after learning that she would have permanent brain damage.
"The 23-year-old Micah Jones we knew died," Marrijane Jones said. "Her dreams and goals shattered.''
Micah Jones spent months relearning how to talk, walk, read and write, but still struggles, her mother said.
"She is now locked inside a brain-injured world, in a brain-injured head looking out at a challenging world, struggling daily with the most minute tasks of walking, concentrating, long- and short-term memory deficits, the inability to remember events of a couple of months ago."
Micah wept at times as her mother testified.
She was a 23-year-old senior at Middle Tennessee State University, studying the music industry, when she was hit while walking across Division Street to a taxi waiting outside a trendy Music Row bar. Gooch, a 20-year police veteran, had consumed enough alcohol to be twice over the legal limit of intoxication for a motorist.
She and another officer, Marsha Brown, had been drinking at several bars earlier that evening, according to police.
Gooch, a highly acclaimed officer known as a fierce advocate for victims of sex crimes, has left the force. The misdemeanors to which she pleaded guilty were first-offense DUI, reckless endangerment and possession of a gun while intoxicated.
Brown also was charged with DUI because police said she took the wheel of the car after Gooch struck Jones. Brown has since pleaded guilty to reckless endangerment and still works for Metro police.
Marrijane Jones told the court that her family would work to pass a law, named for her daughter, that would stiffen penalties for law enforcement officers who drive while under the influence.
After yesterday's hearing, prosecutors insisted that Gooch, who originally was charged with vehicular assault, did not get preferential treatment.
"The fact that she's a police officer didn't really play into it," said Assistant District Attorney General Kristen Shea. "The fact that she doesn't have a criminal history is more impactful in this case, because the state of Tennessee's sentencing guidelines tell us that if someone does not have a criminal history, we're very limited in the types of punishment we can ask for.''