Preacher pays $1,000 fine for fatal DUI wreck

Posted 6:58AM on Friday 5th April 2002 ( 23 years ago )

ATLANTA - A preacher who once pleaded guilty to killing a man while driving under the influence left court as a free man after agreeing to pay a $1,000 fine. Superior Court Judge Wendy Shoob also handed the Rev. Jarius Dorsey a 12-month suspended sentence Thursday in a plea agreement. Dorsey pleaded nolo contendere, accepting responsibility without admitting guilt in the death of 47-year-old Alton Burton on Jan. 31, 1998. On Dec. 16, 1999, Dorsey agreed to serve between three to five years, but sentencing was delayed and Dorsey withdrew his plea. Since then, there has been a tangle of bungled indictments and a skilled lawyer who exploited a series of legal technicalities. ``No probation, no community service,'' said Dorsey's attorney, Brian Steel. ``Not bad, huh? Only after three different indictments.'' Gayle Burton of College Park, who was married to Burton almost 27 years, didn't see it that way. ``Knowing that Mr. Dorsey will not pay for his crime has left me breathing but not living,'' she said. She blamed the light sentence on Shoob, who Burton felt was forcing a plea bargain, and on the district attorney's office, which the judge ruled had botched two indictments. The delays allowed Dorsey to ask Shoob to dismiss his case because of lack of a speedy trial, prompting the plea bargain. ``To me the district attorney's office just gave Judge Shoob the excuse to do what she has always wanted to do,'' said Burton. ``I don't want to see this happen to somebody else.'' Dorsey, 36, pastor at Shady Grove First Baptist Church in Atlanta, was charged with vehicular homicide after his car crashed with Burton's. His blood-alcohol content was slightly above the legal limit. It was his first brush with the law. In one of the overturned indictments, prosecutors cited the wrong part of the legal code to accuse Dorsey of vehicular homicide because of his blood-alcohol content. Instead, Dorsey was indicted only on a section that related to how safely he was driving, which was harder to prove because the cause of the crash was disputed.

http://accesswdun.com/article/2002/4/196448