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Court vacates sentence in reckless driving case
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Posted on May 28 2005
The Superior Court insisted Friday in vacating its sentence against a man who had pleaded guilty to reckless driving after founding out that the defendant had been previously convicted on a similar offense.
Associate judge David Wiseman had already imposed a sentence on David S. Yanneris when the prosecutor informed him that the defendant has a prior conviction.
The judge ruled to reject the joint request of Yanneris and the prosecutor to enforce the sentence without regard to the prior conviction.
The court reviewed its records and verified that Yanneris was also convicted of reckless driving on Jan. 23, 2003.
The judge said that the statutory mandate for a second offense of reckless driving is a minimum of five days in jail.
“The defendant was not informed of the mandate prior to pleading guilty. As such the court was mandated to give the defendant an opportunity to withdraw the plea,” Wiseman said.
The defendant maintained his guilty plea but requested that the original sentence be imposed, which the judge denied.
“The court has a duty to enforce the statutes of the Commonwealth. The mandatory minimum sentence precludes judges from sentencing at a lower guideline than that established by the Legislature,” he said. (John Ravelo)
