There is a restaurant in our town that opened about two years ago. It is
by far the best one that has been in that location over the years. They
have great food and very reasonable prices. It was our favourite
restaurant for a while.

The owner/chef has just been sentenced to a year in jail after pleading
guilty to a charge of careless driving.

What we know to be true is that he was involved in a hit and run
accident. He hit two teenagers who were standing on a lawn. The boy was
not too seriously hurt, but the girl was in really rough shape. She was
thrown more than 60 feet, suffered a number of broken bones and a
serious brain injury. Her life has been ruined. It was 2:30 am and he
took off and left them for dead. The police tracked down his car the
next morning and arrested him. They said he was intoxicated when they
arrested him, but they have no proof that he was intoxicated at the time
of the accident.

The man has given up his share of the restaurant, which he and his wife
had co-owned. I suspect he did that in to shield it from the inevitable
lawsuit.

What I have heard, an apparently from very reliable sources, is that he
was drunk when he left another bar in which he has some sort of interest
and was heading home. Someone my son knows was at the other bar and saw
them drinking... quite a bit. Moreover, the wife was with him at the bar
and in the car with him. It is bad enough that he signed it over to her
to try to hide it from the lawsuit, but IMO, she is a party to the
crimes of DUI and the hit and run.

I had been willing to give them the benefit of the doubt until the
criminal case was settled... . until I heard the other details. I have
not been able to bring myself to go there. It is a good restaurant and
it is the closest one to my house, but I cannot bring myself to
patronize a place that is owned by people who would do something like
that. They ruined a young woman's life and they ruined the lives of the
woman's family. Everything about the case leaves them with a really bad
smell.

I know that a lot of people feel the same way I do and will not go
there. Yet, many others will. The place is packed all the time.
They obviously won't miss my business, but I still can't do it.



To make matters worse,