SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) — The 80-year-old driver who plowed into and killed a family of four in San Francisco’s West Portal neighborhood two years ago will be forced to provide answers about exactly what led up to that deadly crash during the upcoming civil cases.
Mary Fong Lau was sentenced to six days in jail, plus two years’ probation and 200 hours of community service by a judge on March 20 after entering a plea of no contest.
The judge said he considered the driver’s age in the sentencing and her clean record prior to the crash.
The jail sentence is the number of days she’s already served — there will be no additional time.
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Two years ago, the family of four was on their way to the San Francisco Zoo with their two young children when they were killed by Lau, driving 70 miles an hour in the residential area of West Portal in San Francisco.
During the criminal trial, Lau did not take the stand and provide any explanation of why she was driving so fast in a 25 mph zone.
No car issues have been identified that might have caused this crash. A witness on the scene said Lau told her she had hit the gas instead of the brakes.
Lau pleaded no contest in the criminal trial. In the civil lawsuits she will be required to testify under oath about what happened during the crash.
“She will not be able to invoke her 5th amendment privilege against self-incrimination because the criminal case is over. There is no risk that she will be charged criminally for that so she can’t hide that behind that anymore,” said David Levine, Professor at the University of California
College of the law in San Francisco.
Professor Levine said Lau’s “no contest” plea in the criminal case will make the civil case longer.
“By pleading no contest, she has not agreed that she is liable for the accident. So the plaintiff will have to go through the trouble of putting out the evidence regarding what happened and ask a jury if she is responsible for the accident,” said Professor Levine.
RELATED: 80-year-old driver who killed SF family unlikely to face prison time; victims’ family ‘devastated’
The 80-year-old driver who killed a family in San Francisco’s West Portal neighborhood is unlikely to face prison time, and the victims’ family is devastated.
There are two civil cases against Lau that were on hold pending the criminal sentence.
“We have made it clear, we believe is a slap on the wrist for somebody who took four lives, but in the civil case, we’re going to try to hold her accountable based on, civil liability, which measures her assets to figure out what is a fair resolution, and that’s what we want to do. We want to hold her accountable for what she did,” said Jim Quadra, Lawyer representing the victim’s family.
The first is a wrongful death lawsuit and the second a suit that claims she transferred assets to hide them from the wrongful death lawsuit.
“That is already proceeding, and we’re getting that information to confirm that there are no other assets that were transferred improperly, and so we can either get them back, or figure out where the cash flow came from those sales,” said Quadra.
The victims’ family pointed to the second suit as a clear sign that Lau was not remorseful for her actions because she allegedly tried to shield millions of dollars of assets from being part of the first civil suit.
“There are public records of transfers when this occurred,” explained Jim Quadra after the criminal case ended. “All of those properties were transferred after the crash occurred clearly with the effort of hiding it.”
Lau’s attorney said she was remorseful after the criminal case ended.
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“There are no good outcomes for such an immense tragedy. Everyone who came to court felt the pain in the community and from these families, and we feel it, too. Mrs. Lau feels the pain of this tragic loss. She has taken accountability by pleading no contest. Not requiring the district attorney’s office to do a preliminary hearing or to take the case to trial, which would have taken years with an unknown outcome. She hopes that by entering a no-contest plea, it could begin a process of healing for these families,” said Seth Morris, Lau’s attorney.
Lau finally broke her silence and addressed the victim’s family during the sentencing hearing, saying that she was sorry for their loss.
The victims’ family now hopes that she will soon be forced to break her silence and give them answers about exactly what happened on that fateful day.
The jury will decide compensation amount in the civil lawsuits.
“The lawyer can say and they will typically pick what seems like a small number $5, 10 dollars. Everybody will say that is too small, but the lawyer will say it’s okay to pick that. Then the attorney will say think about how many days, this mother will suffer, her son is gone, her grandson is gone. If we say 10 dollars a day and she is going to live 30 years, multiple that out and before you know it you are at a pretty big number,” said Professor Levine.
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