He Had Been Punished Enough

By Jill Smolowe

As he steered his car through a suburban intersection last August, Ramiro de Jesus Rodriguez collided with a parent's worst nightmare: when his car hit an oncoming van, his daughter, three-year-old Veronica, pitched from her mother's arms into the windshield, suffering fatal head injuries. Last week the grieving father came before a Miami court, charged with vehicular homicide for failing to strap his child into a safety seat. The case against Rodriguez was so wrenching and his tale so sad that many potential jurors expressed outrage that he was even being put on trial.

Judge Sidney Shapiro apparently agreed with them. Late last week, after the prosecution rested its case and before the defense team began summoning witnesses, Shapiro called a halt to the proceedings. "There is insufficient evidence that Mr. Rodriguez acted in a reckless manner," he said. Not guilty.

Each year 600 children die in auto accidents because they were not properly strapped into their safety seats or did not wear seat belts, as laws in all 50 states require. Although similar cases had been filed in four other states, each time the charges were dropped. Florida prosecutors had hoped to make an , object lesson of Rodriguez's loss. But in his terse dismissal, Judge Shapiro declared, "Whether two infractions equate to a crime, this court does not believe they do."

On the fatal morning, Veronica had awakened feverish and vomiting. So as the family drove home after a trip to the grocery store, her mother cradled the fretful toddler in her lap, hoping to soothe her. Rodriguez, 30, was traveling only 10 m.p.h. when he hit the van. Usually, cases of heedless driving and failure to strap in a child are treated as traffic violations.

Rodriguez's supporters believed he was being cruelly persecuted because he is a Nicaraguan refugee who speaks no English. They noted that none of 82 similar incidents in Florida during the past four years have been prosecuted, including a March accident involving a white youngster in Broward County who remains in a coma. Others contended that prosecuting Rodriguez was the best way to prevent tragedies in the future. Florida officials had hoped that by making people feel Rodriguez's pain and imagine what it would be like to lose a small child, parents would be more prudent. Perhaps in that they succeeded.

With reporting by Careth Ellingson/Miami