On Saturday, July 2, 2016 at 5:57:08 PM UTC-4, Dave Smith wrote:
> 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,

I would say, based on just the facts you've presented, Not going there is the "right thing" to do. But keep your ears and eyes open in case there's more to the story.

Despite the fact that I'm a VERY Liberal person, the potential involvement of alcohol seals the deal for me. There is no excuse for driving drunk.

Full disclosu yes, I used to drive drunk 80s, maybe 90s. Never again. There wasn't as much of a stigma, But the outcomes were no less tragic.