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Galluccio: Yeah, I shouldn't have just taken off like that after the accident
By adamg on Tue, 10/06/2009 - 1:49pm
Especially given, you know, his driving record and all, and the fact, that, oh, he's a lawyer and stuff. Wicked Local posts state Sen. Anthony Galluccio's apology. We good now?
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Comments
Still tough to swallow
I've been a big Gallucio fan (and contributor) for a long time.
To his credit, he didn't pull a Marzilli--he actually owned up
to it, and apologized.
But I can't see myself voting for him or contributing to his
campaign again.
Owned up to it?
Until and unless he admits to having problems with alcohol and with driving, alone or in combination, I don't think of it as owning up to it.
Senator Gallucio
I have known Mr. gallucio ever since he was 5 years old. When he was 15, he had a problem with beer and I knew then he was heading down a rough road. A few years back, he was involved in a car accident,in Boston,where he hit a cab and (in the cab driver's words) he tried to drive away. he wasn't a State Senator then, he was,I believe,the mayor of cambridge then.The cabbie stated,"he smelt of alcohol and couldn't walk straight. The polioce ,on the scene,let hin go,without a breath-a-lizer test. Unfortunately,I believe Mr. Gallucio will kill somebody one day because of his drinking problem, I do hope I am wrong. Senator gallucio,please get some help!Owning up to it means nothing if someone dies behind your drunk driving..
IE "I did not think anyone
IE "I did not think anyone saw me but my friends at CPD gave me the heads up so I came in to confess."
Wow
Just, wow.
Let's catalog the questions that Gallucio has opened, or left unaddressed, with this rather pathetic public statement:
1) Was he drinking before the crash? He doesn't say. In fact, he can't even directly acknowledge that he's had a past problem with drinking and driving. Polite euphemisms just don't cut it here. I think it's incredibly significant that he doesn't explicitly deny it.
2) He says that "because of my driving history, I panicked and left the scene." Well, senator, because of your driving history, I would've expected you not to panic. Because, surreal though it seems, this isn't the first time you've been in this situation. I have sympathy for people who face unexpected and stressful circumstances, and respond poorly. But by the time your fourth such incident rolls around, I sorta expect you'll have mastered the ground rules. Like, don't flee the scene.
3) Gallucio claims that he "realized my serious error in judgment and recognized that I needed to report the accident. The next morning, I notified the Cambridge Police Department." That directly contradicts published media reports which state that (a) his license plate was recorded by his victims, and that (b) it was the cops who called him. They weren't ambiguous about this: "investigators contacted the lawmaker after police received a license plate number belonging to Galluccio." So somebody's explicitly lying. Any guesses?
4) He said today that he "had no reason to believe that there was any injury involved." On what basis could he have made such a judgment? Let's rephrase that. "Because I did not stop, did not exit my vehicle, did not inquire of my victims whether they were harmed, and was unaware that one of them was taken to the hospital to be treated for minor injuries." At best, this is a willful distortion - you can't have reason to believe there's an injury, I suppose, if you flee the scene too quickly to ascertain what has happened. At worst, it's another explicit lie.
Anthony Galluccio has done a lot of good in his life. It's not easy to run for elective office, or to devote yourself to public service. Gooch has taken some courageous stands on a variety of issues over the course of his career, and he's mentored and inspired some of the students with whom he's worked. For all of those reasons, it's time for him to resign, and to take on his personal problems. This isn't a single lapse of judgment; it's the latest in a pattern of self-destructive incidents. His last crash nearly derailed his senate run, but apparently, wasn't enough to force him to confront his underlying issues.
I have some tolerance for public figures who seek help for their problems. If Galluccio's response to this had been to seek treatment, or to check himself into some sort of facility, I could actually respect that. But he continues to put lives in danger, and won't acknowledge that fact. That's reprehensible.
And the Chronicle has just
And the Chronicle has just posted the incident report. The Cambridge Police come off pretty well - they dispatched cruisers to Galluccio's current and former residences, his mom's house, surrounding streets, and to a nearby repair shop, but failed to find the senator. That introduces yet another interesting question. Just how long did Galluccio's panic last? If he didn't go home after the crash, why not? And where was he on Sunday night, before deciding to turn himself in?
Drinking?
Galluccio's written statement steers clear of whether or not alcohol was involved in his accident.
I was half-expecting Galluccio to make a statement that he was entering an alcohol treatment program. I think he would get much more sympathy if he took that route.
Ah, but he's a lawyer
Somehow, I was forgetting that Galluccio is a lawyer.
Here's the relevant portion of the law that Galluccio is suddenly confronting:
So what we have here isn't an apology at all. It's a carefully crafted legal statement, intended to split hairs so as to convey the appearance of contrition without exposing the senator to legal liability. That's why Galluccio takes pains to note that he had no reason to suspect there had been an injury even though it's a blatant lie - it's because he's trying to wriggle out of liability under this subparagraph, and claim that at most, he should be charged with leaving the scene of an accident, a charge that doesn't carry mandatory prison time with it.
But Galluccio has other issues, too. Take this section of the Rules of Professional Conduct for attorneys in the Commonwealth:
Fourth crash in suspicious circumstances? A pattern of trying to leave the scene of an accident? I'd say that qualifies.
So it gets worse
Police went looking for him at know addresses on Sunday
night, and couldn't find him. So clearly he was avoiding
the police (and a sobriety test) until things cleared up.
Anthony, you're reading this. You need to resign.
He did a "Teddy"
From a comment on an earlier story:
Not the same
In Teddy's case, somebody did die.
Also, Teddy may not have been legally drunk if the blood alcohol limit was still a staggering 0.15!
So how long before this guy
So how long before this guy kills someone? He panicked but did not go home so he was still on the road either oblivious to who he hit or scared that he hit someone. Did he not go home because he knew the police would come looking for him? If they can not catch me then they can not prove I was drinking.
I have a question Senator where did you go after the crash?
Lawerly Panic
He ditched his car on private property somewhere until he sobered up.
Interesting how he immediately dived into a Harvard University driveway in a panic. Um. Yeah.
Sounds like he is going to learn that "red line" is a method of getting from his house to his job, not the point where you really have to shift lest you damage your engine.