23892: Durban (pub) Wash Post- Deceased List Member Follow-up (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Lance Durban <lpdurban@yahoo.com>

Many will recall Marx Aristide, who had provided readers of the
Corbett List a number of thoughtful posts over the years, and
his untimely death in a Washington automobile accident over a
year ago...
LPD

>From the Washington Post of 12/13/04...

              Boy Gets Maximum for Fatal Crash
                                 By Nicole Fuller

  A 14-year-old boy who admitted killing a community activist in
a traffic accident in Northwest Washington was sentenced
yesterday to remain in the city's custody until he is 21, the
maximum penalty.

 The youth, who was driving a stolen car, expressed remorse for
causing the death of Marx Aristide, telling the judge: "If I
could go back to that day, I would change the hands of time, but
I can't. I would just like to say I'm sorry."

 The teenager's remarks came at the end of an extraordinary
hearing in D.C. Superior Court, in which Aristide's mother
joined with the youth's relatives in seeking to have him
released to his family. Both families talked about the trauma
they have endured since the June 19 crash. But Judge Fern
Flanagan Saddler called for the youth to be committed to the
city's youth services agency until he is 21.

 The youth services agency will decide on the appropriate
course. It could decide, for example, to keep the youth at the
city's Oak Hill juvenile detention facility, move him to a group
home or permit him at some point to return to his family under
supervision. The judge recommended that, for now, he remain
confined.

 "I do think it's notable and unique that the family of the
decedent has reached out . . . in a unique way and apparently
towards a pattern of forgiveness," Saddler said. But she told
the youth, "Your actions and choices have had a lot of negative
consequences."

 The D.C. attorney general's office argued for the maximum
penalty, noting the youth's admission that he had driven stolen
cars at least twice before the accident. Aristide, 37, an
activist for democracy and development in Haiti, was one of four
people who died in accidents involving youths in stolen vehicles
within a one-month period.

 One of the youth's attorneys, Trevor Gardner, cited the wishes
of the two families in arguing for a more lenient sentence,
saying, "This is a unique story of two families coming together,
to bridge a seemingly bridgeless gap, even embracing in this
very court."

 Aristide and his fiancee had just finished their wedding plans
when the 14-year-old, who authorities said was speeding in a
stolen Jeep Cherokee, rammed into his car after running a red
light at 14th Street and Florida Avenue NW. Aristide, of Silver
Spring, died the next day.

  Although juvenile proceedings are typically closed to the
public and the media, The Washington Post was allowed to attend
on condition that the boy not be identified.

 In court last week, Claire Aristide, Marx's mother, who spoke
through an interpreter, said that the youth's incarceration
would not bring back her son. The boy's family also pleaded for
his release.

 Aristide's fiancee, who was injured in the crash, did not
attend yesterday's sentencing. In a telephone interview, she
said she believes that the court process places too much
emphasis on protecting the rights of the juvenile and not enough
on the victim.

 "My concern is not the length of time that he be placed in
youth detention, but that the service that he receives is in a
structured environment where he can be rehabilitated and receive
strong therapeutic and academic services," she said. "So that
when he leaves the detention center, he has the tools necessary
to live a productive life."

 Outside of court, the boy's father apologized to the Aristide
family.  "Justice was served," he said. "I'm very upset that my
son has done what he's done."

 Marx Aristide, who worked as an economist, was not related to
former Haitian president Jean-Bertrand Aristide. His brother,
Fedlaire Aristide, 36, a real estate investor who lives in
Brooklyn, N.Y., said by phone that he hoped the youth can turn
around his life.

 "If that kid can actually make a man out of himself in later
years, then we would feel that my brother lived through him," he
said.