Legal mishaps allow preacher to avoid jail after fatal wreck

ATLANTA - The Reverend Jarius Dorsey has admitted killing a man while driving drunk four years ago, but he will never serve a day in jail. <br> <br> Superior Court Judge Wendy Shoob ordered Dorsey to pay a one thousand dollar fine and gave him a 12-month suspended sentence. <br> <br> Dorsey pleaded nolo contendere Thursday, accepting responsibility without admitting guilt in the death of 47-year-old Alton Burton on January 31, 1998. <br> <br> The 36-year-old was charged with vehicular homicide after his car crashed with Burton&#39;s. His blood-alcohol content was slightly above the legal limit. It was his first brush with the law. <br> <br> On December 16 1999, Dorsey agreed to plead guilty and serve between three to five years. But sentencing was delayed and Dorsey withdrew his plea. Since then, there has been a tangle of legal bungles. <br> <br> Shoob ruled that prosecutors botched two indictments. On one, they cited the wrong part of the legal code. The delays allowed Dorsey to ask Shoob to dismiss his case because of lack of a speedy trial, prompting the plea bargain. <br> <br> Dorsey is the pastor at Shady Grove First Baptist Church in Atlanta.