July 18th, 2006 by R.J.

Tomorrow, Wednesday July 19th, Judge James T. Warren will have a hearing to reduce the sentence of a drunk driver convicted of the vehicular manslaughter of a motorcyclist.

On June 4, 2005 Sherri Ann Smith of Lake Elsinore was attending the Temecula Balloon and Wine festival. On her way home, she drove up Ortega Highway to meet her boyfriend at a popular bikers bar. Police say she drifted across the double-yellow line and smashed her pickup into the Harley ridden by Kerry and Sheryl Suglia.

Kerry Suglia died of his injuries, but his wife Sherly survived only to have her leg amputated and be sentenced to a wheel chair for the rest of her life. Sherri Smith’s blood-alcohol level was .11 — the California intoxication threshold for motorists is .08. She has killed a man, ruined a woman’s life, and tore apart a family because she thought it was O.K. to drive drunk.

This is happening more and more lately. People are killing bikers and getting off with little or NO sentence. This woman was convicted AND sentenced (albeit the sentence itself was weak; two years for killing someone while drunk? what kind of crap is that?), but the Judge found it in his heart to resentence her? Why?

This resentencing wasn’t initiated by the defense team of Ms. Smith. They weren’t even aware of it until the Judge announced it and were surprised to hear it! For some reason Judge Warren has found religion and decided to act out on his feelings — against any sort of normal sentencing standards — to save this “poor woman.”

It’s total bullshit. We should be letting Judge Warren and the Riverside County District Attorney know this isn’t acceptable…

The contact number for Judge Warren’s court is 951.304.5000 and the number for the district attorney is 909.955.5400.