by 
Bob Walmsley was hit on April 9, 2007 in Phoenix, Arizona. He died the next day.
This email came to me this morning:
From: Peg
Subject: JUSTICE FOR “BOB THE BIKER”Please send this to whoever you think might be interested. Thanks.
Hi Everyone,
After a year of pretrial conferences, Bob will finally get his day in court. For those of you who don’t know, Bob was struck down while riding with his cycling club last April. The tragedy occurred when a 17 year old boy traveling north decided to pass two trucks and went in the southbound lane with 5 cyclists approaching. The boy was driving a new 2007 F350 3/4 ton truck, Harley Davidson edition that his parents purchased for him. He struck Bob and left him on the side of the road to die. Witness’s chased him into a residential area and were able to get 2 letters of his plates. He was arrested. At first my heart went out to him until his probation officer informed us that he had been in trouble with the law since he was 11 and never spent any time in juvenile hall. He also told us that he had no remorse for Bob’s death and he was recommending that Victor be tried as an adult.He started at eleven stealing from a store and last April he stole a life. A life who was very precious to us. A husband, a father, a brother a neighbor, a friend.
Bob was a quiet man. He loved his family and country. Bob’s dream was to participate in the Senior Olympics in cycling He also looked forward to teaching his grand kids to ride.
Unfortunately neither dream was realized. Bob and I settled in Sun City Grand from San Diego in 2002 when he accepted a job with IBM as a programmer. Bob’s passion was cycling and soon joined the West Valley Cycling Club. Bob started cycling 30 years ago when he took his son and other Boy Scouts on outings. He has since cycled in much of the US. Bob and I fell in love with the community and Arizona. As Bob’s wife and a concerned citizen for the safety of cyclists and other athletes, I would like to ask for your support. There will be a hearing to suppress incriminating evidence on March 21st at 1:30 at the Superior Court in Phoenix in Room 1203.
The trial will start on March 24th at 10:30 in the same courtroom. located at 201 N. Jefferson in Phoenix. The defense is trying to prove that Bob was a elderly man who was not paying attention to road conditions. After riding on the back of Bob’s tandem for 20 years I know this could not be true. Please stand up for Bob and attend this trial. Even if you cannot attend every day any time would be appreciated.
Thank You So Much,
Peggy Walmsley
More here: www.azcentral.com
by 
Seemingly, I can’t resist outting myself as a “slimeball defense lawyer”, so here I go again. Probably won’t matter much to some that I’m also a bike commuter and occasionally ride my bike on city streets with my young daughter in tow, with a barely supressed terror that some idiot/drunk/text-messager/etc. in a motor vehicle will collide with us.
That said, I think it’s possible, without minimizing the tragedy that Mr. Walsmley suffered or the pain his family and friends feel, to note a couple of things about the unnamed probation officer’s comments.
First: “he has no remorse” and “he should be tried as an adult” are canned statements that can be heard before virtually any trial involving a juvenile and a victim who’s been badly hurt or killed. It could be true. It could also be true that this kid’s probation officer is the last person on earth he’d show his true feelings to. Trying a kid “as an adult” is something we let prosecutors get away with, but it doesn’t turn a kid into an adult. It does allow the state to send a kid to adult prison where he’ll likely be raped and otherwised damaged before he’s released back into society feeling like he’s paid up front to do whatever destructive stuff he likes. That’s not going to make the world safer for cyclists or anyone else. Plus, it’s sadistic, and if we support sadism, we’re in a poor moral position to criticize this kid’s actions.
Second, I wonder how a kid could be in real “trouble with the law” for 6 or so years without spending any time in juvenile detention. We’re not told if he was a chronic loiterer, a shoplifter, or a pot smoker, or whether he had a criminal traffic record that might actually relate to the present charge.
Last, this kid is entitled to his day in court and a zealous defense. Without that, there won’t be justice for the cyclist, the kid, or anywone else — just further erosion of the rule of law, and a little more power for the powerful, who — if they can’t directly profit from it — presumably aren’t looking to make the world better for cyclists or other ordinary folks. What I’m hoping for is a fair trial with reasonable and effective consequences for this kid if he’s committed a crime.
Yep, you’re a ‘slimeball defense lawyer’ alright…
I hope they throw his little ass in jail for a while and gets butt-raped while he’s in there…….
If I was in PHX. I’d go sit in court…I know just where it is…
Sure he deserves a fair trial, but he also deserves everything that comes afterward as well. I definitely believe that when the horror of incarceration is associated with careless and reckless driving people will be more inclined to pull their heads out of their asses when they’re behind the wheel. Making this kid out to be a victim is pathetic.
Mike,
How was the soap box? That is like saying ” I am not trying to say you are an asshole, but you are an asshole”….no doubt there are always two sides to a story, but despite what the p.o. said or not, the little shit hit the guy, killed him, and RAN. Actions vs. words.
It is slimeball lawyers that give a punk kid like this a long drawn out zealous defense wasting tax dollars, so don’t give me that shit. You can’t polish a turd, so if he has to take it in the ass or toss a salad or two for killing someone and running, then so be it.
I am betting he prefers syrup…
Of course you’re right. The rule of law and civil rights are a waste of tax money. And, if you’re accused of a crime by a shrill mob of angry people who weren’t there, but scanned a short one-sided version of the story on the internet, then you’re probably guilty and deserve to be trapped in a cage and raped. I am such an asshole for failing to understand that.
“First: “he has no remorse” and “he should be tried as an adult” are canned statements that can be heard before virtually any trial involving a juvenile and a victim who’s been badly hurt or killed.”
Since we’re on the subject of canned statements, “it was the victim’s fault” is right on the top of the pile of shit that the defense will fling in hopes that a reasonable doubt’s worth might stick and another anti-social little punk can walk. I don’t care how much remorse this kid does or does not have-there absolutely needs to be a harsh price paid for the hit-and-run killing of a cyclist.
By the way: Raising the specter people like this coming out of prison as a hardened criminals who feel like they’ve paid up front to do whatever destructive stuff they like is the best argument for the death penalty I’ve heard lately.
Mike , I appreciate what you are saying and to some extent agree with it; at least your assertion that the kid deserves a “zealous” defense and a failure to give him that would be a failure of our judicial system.
That said, I get the feeling that you are merely trying to stir the pot because you are defensive at somehow being associated with ’slimeball defense lawyers’ Get over it. This isn’t about you at all. Noone forced you to become a lawyer–you knew the job had a few shorcomings when you took it. Either that or you are niave as hell.
Read the “short one-sided version of the story on the internet”
again. A group of 5 riders were on the road together. The kid was IN THE OPPOSITE LANE. And he left the scene. That makes him guilty whether or not Bob W. was nimble enough to get out of the way. To use the analogy of someone being “accused of a crime by a shrill mob of angry people who weren’t there” in this situation is just silly. Good thing you wrote that. Now I know to call someone else when next I need legal help.
John
Didn’t blame the victim. You weren’t there. Didn’t make my original comment for any reason other than to respond to the orginal post. I’m not the one who’s resorting to namecalling or other tell-tale signs of defensiveness or having no real argument — just made an obviously unsuccessful attempt to defuse some of the irrational b.s. I knew was going to come my way. Believe me, if my feelings were hurt by “tough talk” (or amplified whining, as I tend to think of it), I wouldn’t have held up to a decade of public defense practice.
why is nobody laying the blame where it really belongs – this fuck stick’s parents? this kid’s been in trouble of one kind or another since age 11; & he’s rewarded with a $30,000 truck?! at 17 yrs old? are you fucking kidding me? real justice would occur if the little asshole had run down his parents while they were out walking. THEY enabled this tool to be behind the wheel in the 1st place. now mommy’s & daddy’s money will be used to try to lay the blame on an innocent victim. sterilize the entire family before any of them breed again.
Keep climbing on that truck price…HD edition F350 (which is a 1-ton, not a 3/4) is pushing $50k. I agree that something should be done to the parents…especially if he does end up being charged as a minor. Keeping parents responsible for what their kids do just might ilicit some actual PARENTING. I don’t know for sure as I don’t have kids, but that’s the way I was raised, and it kept me out of trouble fo’ sho’.
*****fuck large trucks and fuck the drivers!!****
ive been kinda holding back on some dude for the simple fact
im tring to live simple and not be so pissed. He must not think
i bleed just like him.
I ride and if i ever get popped remember me as a rider! have since being a kid.
( do you understand the words that are coming out of my mouth )
hehe
peace.
Joe
Well, his parents obviously have more money than they know what to do with… so for starters take that away from them and pass it along to Bob Walmsley’s family.
Beyond that, a decent amount of jail time would probably do the little shite some good.
And remember, boys and girls, “I didn’t see the cyclist” is a confession, not an excuse.
Mike,
I agree there needs to be a trial, but clock out. This ain’t an episode of Boston Legal….although this defense could probably make an episode. Rule of law and civil rights apply to both sides. You weren’t there either,know no more than what you read either, and it amazes me that you are rationalizing this kids defense argument….he KILLED someone and then left the scene. Save the Johnny Cochran crap..
Oh, I will not “clock out”. Well, actually I will, but not because you said so. You’re not the boss of me, neener neener…
By the way, I get that the poor guy got killed, that he was a good guy, and that his friends and family are suffering. I’m in my mid-40’s and I’ve been riding bikes on and off city streets since I was 6. So, I’ve had firsthand encounters both with personal tragedy and with bad drivers. Not sure what that has to do with my saying that the kid is entitled to a zealous defense (legally true), that we don’t know the whole story, and that adult prison is bad for kids. Also not sure why it isn’t clear that those who want to see juveniles imprisoned with adults have more explaining to do than we “slimeballs” who sometimes defend them in court.
Now I’m clocking out. But not because you said to, okay?
Ah the joys of interweb pontification.
Enough about me, what do you think about me?
Can a hit-and-run victim speak up? First, I do not advocate for trying any juvenile in adult court. There is a very good reason we have a juvenile justice system in parallel with the adult system, and that’s because kids act stupid sometimes because they don’t have the maturity to stop and think before they act. That is just the nature of being a kid.
Second, we have only heard one side of the story here. The prosecution’s side. wait until we can hear the defense’s side before making any judgements. And if he’s actually guilty of hit-and-run, he and his parents deserve to be pauperized. One Third of everything the kid makes for the rest of his life, before taxes, should go to Bob’s wife and kids. If he takes out a loan to go to school the surviving family should get 1/3, a mortgage would get the family 1/3 of the mortgage…
Opus