The best and worst films of 2012 ARTS & EVENTS | 9 JANUARY 4, 2013 VOLUME 20, NO. 50
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MOVIES | 18
Witnesses: car that killed Ware was speeding JUDGE MUST NOW DECIDE WHETHER TO SEND CASE TO TRIAL By Nick Veronin
transports the disabled, and the driver of the utility van — said he driver accused of hit- that Pumar appeared to have run ting and killing William a red light before swerving and Ware appeared in court losing control of his vehicle. Dec. 27 for a preliminary hearThe prosecution’s final witing. Several witnesses took the ness, Officer Daniel Garcia of the stand before a judge, but no Mountain View Police Departjury. ment, spent much of his time Before the court went into explaining the story Pumar recess for the day, five witnesses gave him, which was recordanswered quesed in Garcia’s tions from Duffy official report. Magilligan, the ‘The emotions During his tesprosecuting deputimony, Garcia ty district attorney, ran high. It’s just said Pumar had and Dennis Smith, told him that lawyer for Mat- a horrible way to he had tried thew Pumar — the get through be remembered.’’ to 22-year-old Mounthe intersection tain View driver before the light DOLORES MARQUEZ, who is alleged to turned red, by WARE’S NIECE have run into Ware pushing the after speeding reckgas pedal of his lessly through an intersection. 2000s-era Audi A4 “as far as it All of the witnesses were called could go.” According to Garcia’s by the prosecution. report — basically Pumar’s side Judge Thang Nguyen Barrett of the story — he was driving listened as the witnesses — most 40 mph in the 35 mph zone and of whom were at or near the only began to accelerate “three intersection of Escuela Avenue car lengths” before entering the and California Street on June 21, intersection. at about 9 a.m. — described the During Garcia’s testimony, accident, often referencing a map Magilligan showed a video of hung on the wall. the scene, periodically pausing All witnesses who were at the the tape and asking the officer to scene of the accident said the explain what the court was seedriver of the car that struck and ing. There were two yellow tarps killed Ware swerved to avoid a seen in the video — one apparutility van, which was on the ently covering Ware’s foot and scene with a crew making repairs another perhaps 10 yards away to the intersection’s traffic sig- apparently covering the rest of nals. Ware’s body. It was a grisly scene, The witnesses who were at and caused Ware’s niece, Dolores the intersection at the time of Marquez, to leave the court room the crash — two pedestrians, a driver for a local company that See TRAFFIC DEATH, page 8
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PICTURING 2012
MICHELLE LE
This May 8 photograph of 4-year-old Sier Ahmad at the Pioneer Park playground is among Michelle Le’s choice photos of 2012. For more images of the year gone by, see Page 11.
Court rebukes assistant DA for misconduct in predator trial By Sue Dremann Palo Alto Weekly
C
hief Assistant District Attorney Jay Boyarsky, the second-highestranking official in the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office, was castigated by a state appeals court on Thursday for misconduct while handling a hospital commitment case against a sexual predator, according to court documents. The finding of misconduct, which the California Sixth Appellate District Court termed “so infected the trial with unfairness as to make the resulting conviction a denial of due process,” resulted in a reversal of a judgment that committed a man to a state hospital after the man
INSIDE
admitted performing sexual acts an intoxicating substance. He with teenage boys. was sentenced to 17 years and 8 The court’s decision comes months in state prison. one year and nine months after But shortly before his release District Attorney Jeff Rosen from prison, in April 2003, the announced a convictionDA’s office filed a petiintegrity unit in March tion to commit Shazier to 2011 to address a series a state mental facility as a of prosecutorial misconsexually violent predator duct allegations against under the Welfare and the office; the alleged Institutions Code. misconduct preceded his The first commitment tenure. The unit was to trial resulted in a hung set protocol to prevent Jay Boyarsky jury. The jury in a secfuture errors. ond commitment trial The Dec. 27 appeals court rul- in 2005 sent Shazier to a state ing stems from two 1994 felony mental hospital for two years. cases against Dariel Shazier, who But the verdict was overturned pleaded guilty of sodomy with the following year by the appela minor under age 14, sodomy late court after the prosecutor in with a minor under age 18, and that case, Benjamin Field, was oral copulation where the victim was unable to resist due to See MISCONDUCT, page 6
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