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Cab driver in fatal accident leaves NMI
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Posted on Apr 24 2006
The Superior Court issued a bench warrant yesterday against a taxi operator who left the CNMI despite a scheduled jury trial in his traffic case in connection with a fatal vehicular accident in San Roque.
Associate Judge David A. Wiseman commanded Department of Public Safety Commissioner Ernest Mark Williams to arrest Ruhul Amin and bring him to court “without unnecessary delay.”
Wiseman issued the bench warrant after Amin, a Bangladeshi, failed to appear during the scheduled jury trial. The judge imposed a $5,000 cash bail.
During a status conference on April 11, 2006, the Public Defender’s Office informed the court that its client, Amin, had left the Commonwealth.
Wiseman then ordered that the April 24 trial date as previously set would continue that day.
But yesterday, only assistant public defender Adam Hardwicke and Attorney General’s Office’s legal intern John Aguon appeared in court.
Amin was charged with failure to stop a vehicle at the scene of the accident, not giving his identification cards and the registration number of vehicle, and not rendering reasonable assistance to the victims.
Police said a 14-year-old old altar boy died while his 15-year-old male companion sustained injuries after a taxicab driven by Amin hit them while they were crossing Middle Road near Shell Gasoline Station in San Roque at 7pm on April 30, 2005.
Amin continued driving his taxicab to his house in Garapan. He later surrendered to the police.
Traffic investigators said there was pedestrian error on the part of the victims but police still issued traffic citations against the taxicab operator.
The parents of the boy who died filed a civil lawsuit in federal court against Amin.
