Outrage! Police Office Fined $185 For Speeding And Hitting 14 year Old Boy While Crossing Street

A Montgomery police officer while speeding in his patrol car collided with and paralyzed a Clarksburg boy has received a $185.00 fine for speeding.  The Officer Jason Cokinos is back on duty canvassing high crime neighborhoods.  The officer was traveling at 56 mph in a 30 mph zone when he struck Luis Jovel Jr., age 14 while Luis was crossing the street.

Police investigation concluded had the office been traveling at the posted speed limit that Luis would not have been hit.   

Regardless of that fact a Montgomery County Court judge ruled the office was not guilty of negligent driving or contributing to the accident.

                            

  

Luis Jovel Jr. is now a quadriplegic and suffers with permanent brain damage. 

The family’s civil suit award for damages was limited by state law to a total of $400,000 or $200,000 per case that restricts the legal liability of local government.  

Here you have a government employee’s willful negligence turn a young boy into a human vegetable and the county gets off the hook for $400,000 because the government passed a law limiting their liability to $200,000 per occurrence.  Unless the state also limits the damages of citizens to 200,000 per incident in similar tort actions this ruling should be appealed to the Supreme Court on the grounds of equal protection.  Government should not have one set of rules for themselves and another set for the public.