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DA: Hit/run suspect's car had blood all over one side and was barely driveable, but he denied hitting anyone

Besnilian

A Brighton District Court judge let a Watertown man walk out of court today following his arraignment on OUI and leaving-the-scene charges for a crash in Allston that sent two people to the hospital, one with head injuries, the Suffolk County District Attorney's office reports.

Joseph Besnilian, 23, was ordered to wear a GPS monitor, stay away from the wheel and liquor and obey a curfew, however.

Proscutors charge Besnilian plowed into two bicyclists - a 25-year-old woman from Watertown and a 26-year-old man from Tyngsboro - around 12:40 this morning at Lincoln and Franklin streets. The woman suffered leg injuries, the man head and facial injuries.

At approximately the same time officers arrived at the crash scene, another officer handling crowd control on North Beacon Street stopped a white 2013 Volkswagen Jetta that was making a loud scraping sound and had heavily damaged front passenger side fender, prosecutors said.

The officer approached the vehicle and spoke with Besnilian, who was behind the wheel. The officer allegedly observed Besnilian to slur his speech in response to questioning, replying, “You tell me” when asked what happened and, “What, I hit something? No I didn’t.”

Police noted that the vehicle had blood sprayed on the passenger side and a broken passenger’s side mirror.

According to an Instagram posting dug up by Bits by Bike, Besnilian loved his car, which he had bought only last month.

Besnilian declined to take a breath test, but police noted he was "wearing a pink wristband of the type provided at bars and nightclubs, had glassy eyes and extremely large pupils, carried the odor of alcohol and showed difficulty answering officers’ questions," the DA's office says, adding Besnilian later acknowledge to police he and his passenger had been drinking at Besnilian's apartment before "going to a club in Cambridge and then taking a drive to check out the area in the wake of last night’s Red Sox win."

Innocent, etc.

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Comments

if u cant serve the time dont commit the cirme..

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What time?

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i see what u did there. good point.

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ordered to wear a GPS monitor, stay away from the wheel and liquor and obey a curfew, however.

THAT'LL TEACH HIM!!

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But to ensure the guy keeps showing up in court until he's found innocent or guilty.

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Use a car = GPS monitor
Use a gun = ZOMG $1,000,000 bail!
Not hit anybody, but have a suitcase full of pot =$500K bail

Priorities?

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Kill someone with a car, and most likely you will not be facing much more than a slap on the wrist.

Use a gun and you will be facing hard time.

Much more incentive to flee in the latter case. Hence, higher bail.

So if we ever fix the laws regarding vehicular manslaughter, then higher bails will likely follow.

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Good point. This guy knows that the chance of doing time is virtually nil, so he's resting easy tonight, maybe going out and tying one on.

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from setting bail lower than the prosecution's recommendations.

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The prosecution doesn't set bail. The judge sets bail.

If you don't get that, you need to learn some things about how our legal system is set up ... AND WHY!

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that a judge can alter (or totally ignore) a prosecutor's bail recommendation on a whim without having to provide ANY rationale for the decision whatsoever. And it also makes perfect sense that a defense attorney can plead for a lower bail if they feel the amount set is too high, but that the prosecution can't appeal for a higher bail if they feel the amount is too low. The answer to both of these statements - NOT!!!!!!

And if the question is who's more expert on appropriate bail for a given crime, I'd have to go with an experienced prosecutor versus an appointed judge any day of the week.

Lastly, and with respect, if you think letting a guy that hit two people while drunk (hense the OUI charge) walk out of court at all, let alone without bail, is the way our legal system should work, then I don't think I'm the one not properly understanding our legal system here.

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A gun case in Boston is maybe worth $10,000 bail with a mandatory year and a half sentence. More if you actually shoot the guy and it looks like he'll testify.

You probably need a tractor-trailer full of pot to get a half-mil bail though since the trafficking statute doesn't kick in until 50 lbs and there's no mandatory jail time for anything under that. If you have a suitcase full of weed and no record, you're walking out of court that day.

Yes, bail is to ensure appearance in court, but seriousness of the charges and likelihood of imprisonment are factors in determining flight risk. You're much more likely to do time on a gun arrest (mandatory minimum sentence) than a pot arrest (no minimum).

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$1,000,000 bail for first time nonfatal shooting? Maybe in Texas, around here it's more like $1,000, or own recognizance and an order not to shoot the victim again if one gets judge dougan or another similar thugophile.

PS: I have a feeling your town doesn't have a gun-toting thug problem. Or a dude-with-suitcase-fullofpot problem, for that matter.

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Do you really need to minimize victims of gun violence in order to make your point?

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What bail?

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Allowed to walk out of court? W-T-F JUDGE! This guy is an unrepentant attempted murderer for piss sake. If a drunk guy assaulted you with a bat they sure as Hell wouldn't be out walking about. Why is a thousand pound car different than any other potentially lethal weapon?

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Because he "didn't see them", no doubt.

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I know right, the God given right to drive pedal to the floor across the landscape with no regard for any obstacle living or not.

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...because he was blind-drunk. Therefore, he'll get a scolding at worst and told not to do it again. [RAGE]

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I personally don't know the driver who did this. It's sad what happened. Everyone has a story- kibbles and bits and bikes had no right to put a human on blast like that over the internet. Pretty much cyber bullying and targeting. The Red Sox won the world series, it was a crazy night in Boston. pitch black, people riding bikes at 1 in the morning is a little suspect as well. Not guaranteed they were sober. Nobody knows. What I read is he refused a breathalyzer which anyone on the planet would do. He might of not been legally drunk for all we know. It's a freak accident and sad and I pray for the all the victims involved in this tragedy. He never should of left but I can only imagine he panicked and had no idea what hit his car. It's natural reaction. I just hope the victims are ok. No criminal record or driving history record. The kid messed up and I'm sure its haunting him.. he deserves what he gets but it could of happened to anybody. Sober or not.

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But he made two stupid decisions that are both illegal to make. Driving drunk (and from police description it sounds like he was, and certainly leaving the scene would enfource the impression he was drunk) kills a lot of people. Two other people are paying for his first decision. People obviously need an incentive not to drive drunk, punishing those who drive drunk when they shoudn't (who drives away after hitting two people an injuring them enough to send them to the hospital?) is part of the incentive.

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Not saying what he did was right or anything

but do we really need the public shaming of this guy? Seriously. Again Not saying what he did was right or wrong. but I think the public shaming by bits and bikes is really unneeded.

Let's face it, we all have stuff on our Facebook pages that might be used against us in the future, would YOU like this done to YOU?

yeah I didn't think so.

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Huh???? What he did was clearly wrong.... Are u serious? Sounds like u are. Sorry to hear that.

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Did you even READ what I said. I didn't say what he did was right or wrong. For the record, he's clearly wrong, but doesn't deserve the public shaming..

What is WRONG is the public shaming... No need. No need at all.

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... when someone does something (driving drunk, hit and run resulting in serious injuries, lying to police) clearly shameful.

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There's nothing wrong with public shaming when they guy HAS NO REMORSE

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"Again Not saying what he did was right or wrong". thats your direct quote....... literally you said hes "not right or wrong". now you say he is wrong? wishy washy. u feel same way about jahar too?

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after this guy is charged, his name and photo shouldn't be released to the publc. If you truly believe in "innocent until proven guilty", wouldn't you also agree that release of a suspect's name prior to conviction is a form of public shaming. And one that's a lot harder to shake off if the guy is found innocent of the charges.

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Bits and bites clearly has a liberal attitude towards life... And to answer your question about "who would ever possibly want to take a breathalyzer"... A sober person would take a breathalyzer. Sorry to rain on ur parade.. Nothing earth shattering about that.. Ur clearly a friend of the drunk

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How does being a "liberal" predispose one to excuse drunk driving and hitting and running and lying about one's behavior? Please explain.

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Maybe next a find raiser can be set up for the driver since some of us do not feel he is in the wrong or should not have been asked to take a breathalyzer

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On the one hand, it's nice to see somebody has such loyal friends.

On the other hand, two people got sent to the hospital - one with head injuries. Your friend might be innocent - a court will decide that - but in the meantime, he's uninjured and walking around, and they're not.

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I think the post you replied to was supposed to be ironic. I think he found the first post a bit off.

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correct. i was joking about the fund raiser for the driver... refer to other Uhub post about the fund raiser for the person who had car flipped, which insurance should cover if he has insurace...

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Its not a natural reaction to hit something/anything and keep going (especially if you got a brand new car), a lot of people were out and their were parking bans, so why is it suspect to be riding a bike, it was the world series, its better than driving drunk. Do not make excuses for people, he did not even own up to what he did (as far as I know) the blood was on his car.

Yes it was an accident and the kid is only 23 and as a family memebr of the victims I do not wish anything bad on him, this situation is far to common, Although, if driving away after you hit someone is your natural reaction get off the road

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The reason people rush to pillory people like this driver is because codependent friends like you, and lax laws, mean that they can kill and kill again without being prevented from doing so or appropriately punished.

Two vehicle operators were operating their vehicles legally. They were victimized by a driver who was not operating legally, and did not stop to take responsibility for his actions, and still doesn't seem interested in doing so.

I have a resource for you, should you feel like making more excuses for drunk drivers: http://www.al-anon.org/local-meetings

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Oh, you were there? You're 100% certain the bicyclists were operating their vehicles legally? No chance at all they blew a stop sign or anything like that?

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> No chance at all they blew a stop sign or anything like that?

... on the issue of hit and run and lying to police.

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your friend was hammered he doesnt even remember hitting two human beings so stop being irrational if the situation was switched around you would probably be bad mouthing the driver worse than the people on this site are

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couldn't remember hitting and seriously injuring 2 human beings on bicycles, that's even more horrifying, and a better reason for the OUI driver to go to jail. That OUI driver must've been really s**t-faced if his memory was so blotted out. I hope that both of the 2 injured cyclists make a full recovery, and that the OUI driver gets his license pulled and ends up serving some time behind bars and/or perhaps being forced to pay some kind of restitution to both of the cyclists.

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The shame here is that neither Joe, nor the friends he was partying with, thought that he should maybe, just maybe, since his apartment was "close to the bars", and there were lots of parking bans in effect...WALK, instead of driving? Joe fully had it within his ability to leave the keys on the table and walk his ass to the bars. Instead, two people's lives are changed.

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