DWI Hit Parade!

From The Buffalo News

After walking  free this morning  following 239 days in jail, Dr. James G. Corasanti hopes to stay in Western New York.

He looks forward to reuniting with his wife and young son, and he intends to resume working as a physician.

“He hopes to stay here. He would like very much to stay here,” said Joel L. Daniels, one of the attorneys who defended Corasanti in his high-profile trial last year. “He has a lot of patients here. They very much would like him to stay and continue to take care of them.”

Corasanti was acquitted in Erie County Court on all felony charges related to the traffic death of an 18-year-old longboard skater but was found guilty of drunken driving.

A jury acquitted him of manslaughter, leaving the scene and evidence-tampering charges, rejecting the prosecution contention that while on his way home from a country club outing, Corasanti was texting, speeding and driving on the shoulder of Heim Road in Amherst when his car fatally struck Alexandria “Alix” Rice on July 8, 2011.

Jurors convicted him of DWI, even though they concluded that his drunkenness did not directly cause her death.

Corasanti, 57, of Getzville, was released today from the Erie County Correctional Facility in Alden after serving two-thirds of his one-year jail sentence.

County Judge Sheila A. DiTullio sentenced    ….MORE

Dr. David Lee Smith

From WIS
IRMO, SC (WIS) -A Midlands doctor accused of hitting and killing a man walking on an Irmo sidewalk in early January has voluntarily surrendered his medical license.
Dr. David Smith, 46, of Lexington, signed the temporary agreement of voluntary surrender on January 16, according to the South Carolina Board of Medical Examiners website.
The order invalidates Smith’s license to practice medicine in the state of South Carolina.
Ten days earlier, Smith was charged with felony DUI after police say he hit Raymond A. Geiger, 39, with his Land Rover on Lake Murray Boulevard near St. Andrews Road around 10:30 p.m. on January 6.
Geiger was pronounced ….MORE

From WIS
IRMO, SC (Jan. 7, 2012) -A man walking on an Irmo sidewalk died after being hit by an impaired driver Sunday night, according to the Irmo Police Department.
The collision happened on Lake Murray Boulevard near St. Andrews Road around 10:30 p.m.
According to Lexington County Coroner Harry O. Harman, Raymond A. Geiger, 39, of Irmo, was walking westbound on the sidewalk in front of 1155 Lake Murray Blvd. when he was struck by a black Land Rover traveling eastbound.
The coroner said Geiger was pronounced dead at the scene.
Police said David Lee Smith, 46, of Lexington was driving the Land Rover. Smith is employed as a doctor with Lexington Family Practice on Polo Road, according to the South Carolina Board of Medical Examiners website.
According to an arrest report, when officers arrived on the scene Smith told them he was a physician and offered to check Geiger’s pulse. The officer refused and asked Smith if he had anything to drink. Smith said “no.”
Officers observed ….MORE

From WKBW
BUFFALO N.Y. (WKBW) Dr. James Corasanti received the maximum sentence for his conviction on a misdemeanor DWI charge related to the hit-n-run death of 18-year old Alexandria Rice.
Erie County Court Judge Sheila DiTullio handed down the sentence.
The 57-year old doctor will spend the next year in jail, pay a $1,000 fine, have his drivers license revoked for six months, and will have to install an ignition interlock on his car for 12 months after he is released from jail.
The sentencing brings to conclusion a case that had been the focus of intense media and public attention.
In late May, the doctor’s acquittal on five felony charges led to a public outcry and condemnation of the jury.
But Corsanti was convicted on a lesser charge of common law Driving While Intoxicated.
The charge carried a maximum jail term of one year, and that was imposed by Judge DiTullio ….MORE

From WGRZ
BUFFALO, NY– Dr. James Corasanti will be sentenced Thursday morning in Erie County Court in connection with the accident that killed teenager Alix Rice.
Rice, 18, was struck and killed by Dr. Corasanti’s vehicle while she was riding her longboard on Heim Road last year.
Corasanti was convicted by a jury of misdemeanor DWI and found not guilty of the most serious charges against him, including vehicular manslaughter.
Dr. James Corasanti will stand before Erie County Court Judge DiTullio for his sentence and will have an opportunity to make a statement. But, before he hears the Judge Sheila DiTullio’s sentence, the parents of Alix Rice plan to speak.  ….MORE

From Buffalo News
Dr. James G. Corasanti took his family to Our Lady of Victory Basilica in Lackawanna Thursday, a day after an Erie County Court jury found him not guilty of felony charges in the death of Alexandria “Alix” Rice last July.
“He addressed these personal issues with those of his family and Alix Rice as anyone does in their own fashion with their own God,” said attorney Thomas H. Burton, trying to counter what he said was misinformation about a party at Corasanti’s Getzville home Wednesday night after the verdict.
There was a gathering, but it was anything but cheerful, said Burton ….MORE

From Times Union
A 68-year-old Connecticut doctor has been charged with DWI, disorderly conduct and exposing himself to a female trooper after he allegedly crashed his car on Interstate 684 in Westchester County and peed on the floor of the State Police barracks while he was being booked.
State Police said the odd incident unfolded around 7:30 p.m. Tuesday when Robert J. Orlandi, 68, of New Milford, Conn….MORE

From NOLA.com
Slidell Memorial Hospital’s chief executive officer has lost his job after a drunken driving arrest earlier this month, his second in six years.

View full sizeScott Threlkeld, The Times-Picayune
Slidell Memorial CEO Robert L. ‘Bob’ Hawley Jr., listens to a speaker before the hospital board headed to executive session Thursday, July 28, 2011, at the Slidell Memorial Hospital Regional Cancer Center. The board voted to fire Hawley, who was recently arrested for the second time in six years for driving while intoxicated.

The hospital’s board of nine commissioners unanimously voted to fire him Thursday evening during a public meeting at the regional cancer center on Robert Road.   …..MORE

From St. Tammany News
Slidell Memorial Hospital Chief Executive Officer Robert Hawley Jr., 64, was arrested earlier this month for his second driving while intoxicated.
Hawley, who was crossing the bridge at approximately 4:15 a.m. on July 13 when he was stopped, admitted to having a few beers before getting behind the wheel that morning, Causeway General Manager Carlton Dufrechou said…..MORE

From Buffalo News
Dr. James G. Corasanti has previously been accused of drinking and driving.
Fifteen years ago in Niagara County, police charged the Getzville doctor with driving while intoxicated, according to law enforcement officials.
The charge was eventually reduced to driving while impaired, and he pleaded guilty to a violation. In the time since then, he has not had any alcohol-related charges, according to records at the state Department of Motor Vehicles…..MORE