Most of us were pretty horrified by the travesty of justice that went down in Colorado, where a 23-year-old truck driver, who lost control of his huge vehicle after its brakes failed and ended up in a fiery crash that killed four people and injured dozens of others, got a 110-year prison sentence. Rogel Aguilera-Mederos’s 2019 accident was attributed not to the failure of his brakes, but entirely to a failure in his judgment over whether he could take an off ramp (try doing that without brakes in a state of panic). As a result, the poor Cuban immigrant with no criminal record got a de facto death sentence for an accident he had never intended to commit, was largely powerless to prevent, and fully cooperated with the authorities.
At his sentencing, the man cried at his lost life as the monster sentence was read, looking powerless and small against a huge state juggernaut — a young, humble immigrant trying to provide for his family with a dirty, dangerous, low-paid job nobody wants in a profession blue states treat like dirt. Nothing pointed to the power of the elites, the unequalness of the justice system, or the mercilessness of the ambitious prosecutors with their unlimited prosecutorial “discretion” than that case. The man was expendable to them, and they had careers to advance, so they got busy.
The only thing the de facto death sentence could be called was cruel and unusual punishment, made even more insulting because this is the era of Soros-financed district attorneys, who gladly let real criminals out without prosecution under the rubric of “ending mass incarceration.” The judge expressed his distaste at the draconian sentence, saying his hands were tied by sentencing guidelines. Draconian justice, after all, isn’t justice.
And in no surprise, the public was outraged. Some 4.7 million people signed this Change.org petition demanding that the unjust sentence be commuted to time served or something similar. Trucking organizations bruited strikes. Individual truckers vowed to never drive through Colorado, and too bad about the supply chain. Latino groups spoke out about the unjust sentence. It was obviously trash justice done by ambitious prosecutors with very low morals.
And sure enough, a pair of them popped out proving the public’s suspicions about them.
Here’s young Kayla Wildeman, two years out of law school, a former restorative justice intern, and her adoring father-aged 54-year-old mentor, Trevor Moritzky, who were the “successful” prosecutors in the case:
Kayla Wildeman, a deputy district attorney with the First Judicial District Attorney’s Office, posted on her personal Facebook page a photo of a brake shoe from a semitrailer with the case number and her name printed on a placard affixed to the brake.
The copy accompanying the undated photo reads: “Get yourself a trial partner as great as Trevor Moritzky. He turned a brake shoe from a semi-truck into a memento. What a special gift from truly a special person. I never asked for a new bff at work, let alone one that is old enough to be my father (no offense) but I sure am grateful this trial brought you into my career as both a colleague and a friend! Words will never convey how lucky I am to have gotten the opportunity to learn from you!”
Image: Facebook share, since deleted.
That’s sadism. The celebratory “trophy” was a brake shoe, gleefully placing the failure of the brakes on a sort of perverted award plaque, set to decorate this miserable creature’s “distinguished” law library. The truck driver was very questionably convicted on the grounds of bad judgment, but this pair was celebrating the failed brakes. That was the part they liked best and wanted to immortalize themselves on. Speaking of bad judgment…
A law classmate of Kayla Wildeman’s described her lack of character:
Describing Kayla Wildeman, Jordie Margaret, who went to law school with her, wrote on Facebook, “Her computer screensaver she had in law school is burned into my brain: “You’re never fully dressed without a smile.” It’s burned into my brain because I remember constantly thinking about the irony of someone being so smiley and bubbly yet adding commentary in class that completely devalued human life and represented a complete inability to place herself in the shoes of someone else.”
A lot of the attention is being focused on young Kayla with her openly expressed excitement about all her career advancement as a result of this sorry case, but the guy who made the trophy, Moritzky, deserves at least some scrutiny. Try driving with brake failure (it happened to me once), and let’s see how any of us does.
LULAC, a left-wing Latino advocacy organization with which I rarely otherwise agree, made the right statement:
“To say we are disgusted over this so-called trophy is an understatement. LULAC demands a full investigation into the matter to identify the people who are involved so that they face the maximum disciplinary action, up to and including dismissal,” said Domingo Garcia, LULAC national president. “To mock the seriousness of this case diminishes the loss of four lives as well as the pain suffered by everyone affected by this tragedy. This trophy is evidence of the total lack of respect and basic human decency by the district attorney and her team in this matter. They are dancing on the graves of the victims and showing their glee that a man faces a sentence equal to three generations in an unjust verdict. Professionalism is clearly lacking in this District Attorney’s office.”
The whole show was disgusting, and, fortunately, the rest of the district attorney’s office seem to recognize the public relations problem brought on not just by the sentence, but the gleeful, Madame Defarge–style celebrations from the prosecutors.
The elected D.A., Alexis King, came out with a public statement saying this despicable grave-dancing act “does not reflect the values of my administration” and that the matter would be dealt with “internally.” That could mean anything, including nothing, given that the public isn’t being let in on whether any action to fit the transgression will ever be taken.
As of this writing, it appears that King knows that the public heat is hot now. She’s asked the court to “reconsider” the sentence and take it to a board for review, which apparently only she can set into motion:
First Judicial District Attorney Alexis King filed a motion Tuesday for a court to set a hearing to review the sentence of Rogel Lazaro Aguilera-Mederos.
“As Colorado law required the imposition of the sentence in this case, the law also permits the Court to reconsider its sentence in an exceptional case involving unusual and extenuating circumstances,” the motion states. “This would allow for the conditions to be met for a modification of the defendant’s sentence as was discussed by the People in the initial sentencing hearing.”
This is rather the right thing to do, given the travesty brought about by Wildeman and Moritzky. Assuming it’s out of their incapable hands now, given their bad judgment, the task remains how to clean up some of these district attorneys’ offices, obviously filled with people with low character and zero morals. We see a lot of bad people turn up in district attorneys’ offices these days — from Chesa Boudin to James Comey to now this pair. Draconian sentences reduce public regard for the law, as it’s only dictatorships that do them. Where are the reforms about the kinds of creeps they are hiring? And above all, why are the judge’s hands tied on sentencing, but the prosecutors’ discretionary powers utterly unlimited? Absolute power corrupts absolutely and when you have a hollow punkling like Wildeman and a corrupted older creep egging her on with that kind of power, judicial travesties are the only result.
Image: Facebook share screenshot, since deleted.
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