{"id":229564,"date":"2026-03-21T03:38:24","date_gmt":"2026-03-21T03:38:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/229564\/"},"modified":"2026-03-21T03:38:24","modified_gmt":"2026-03-21T03:38:24","slug":"driver-in-deadly-west-portal-crash-sentenced-to-probation-no-prison-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/229564\/","title":{"rendered":"Driver in deadly West Portal crash sentenced to probation, no prison time"},"content":{"rendered":"

The driver in the 2024 crash that killed a family of four<\/a> in West Portal was sentenced to two years of probation Friday, enraging the victims\u2019 relatives and supporters who had urged the court to reconsider.<\/p>\n

Judge Bruce Chan also revoked Mary Fong Lau\u2019s driver\u2019s license for three years, including her probation period. At that point, she will be eligible to reapply to the DMV for another license. <\/p>\n

Lau, 80, was sentenced to 200 hours of community service and six days of time served in jail and will not face further incarceration.<\/p>\n

As the sentence was read aloud, more than 40 friends and family members of the victims looked on silently, save one, who exclaimed, \u201cJesus!\u201d <\/p>\n

Lau, wearing a red, leopard-patterned shirt, sat motionless, facing her lawyer, her face obscured by her interpreter.<\/p>\n

Before Chan read the sentence, he said the legal standard of gross negligence had not been met, saying Lau wasn\u2019t engaging in a race or sideshow, was not texting, and was not under the influence of drugs or alcohol at the time of the crash. <\/p>\n

Chan said incarceration would endanger Lau, given \u201cdocumented\u201d issues with providing healthcare and the risk she\u2019d face of physical harm from inmates who \u201cprey upon the weak.\u201d He dismissed the possibility of home confinement, saying it would amount to \u201cputting an ankle monitor on an octogenarian\u2019s ankle.\u201d <\/p>\n

He said he intended to order Lau to pay $67,4oo in restitution as part of her sentence.<\/p>\n

Chan indicated at a hearing last month that Lau would likely get no prison time after she pleaded no contest to four counts of felony vehicular manslaughter. Chan cited Lau\u2019s age, remorse, and lack of a criminal record as reasons for a light sentence.<\/p>\n

Family and friends of the couple whom Lau killed addressed Chan, urging him to invoke a harsher sentence with one year in county jail or home confinement with ankle monitoring for the same length of time, and to permanently bar her from driving again.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have not felt seen, we have not felt heard, and we feel disrespected,\u201d Denise Oliveira, Diego\u2019s sister, told Chan.<\/p>\n

After hearing from family and friends, Lau stood and apologized to the victims\u2019 loved ones at the urging of Fabio Benedetto, a friend of the couple.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m sorry for your family. Sorry,\u201d Lau said, turning toward them and bowing.<\/p>\n

Lau never intends to drive again and never retrieved her SUV, which was totalled during the crash, according to her attorney Seth Morris.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe accident is something she regrets deeply,\u201d Morris told reporters outside the courtroom. \u201cShe has taken accountability by pleading no contest.\u201d<\/p>\n

District Attorney Brooke Jenkins rejected that characterization.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom my office\u2019s standpoint as well as the families\u2019, that simply isn\u2019t justice. That is not taking responsibility for your actions and the responsibility for the loss of four innocent and beautiful lives,\u201d Jenkins said outside the courtroom after the sentencing was announced.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a lesson to San Francisco that sadly, while we think we have a functioning justice system, so often each and every day we have judges who decide that they don\u2019t want to trust the process in and of itself and they\u2019d rather take justice into their own hands.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"AMary Fong Lau at the San Francisco County Superior Court in 2024. | Source: Jason Henry for The Standard<\/p>\n

Prosecutors say Lau was speeding in a 2014 Mercedes GLK when she drove onto a Ulloa Street sidewalk, striking the West Portal library branch building before hitting a married couple and their children on March 16, 2024. The victims were identified as Diego Cardoso de Oliveira, Matilde Moncada Ramos Pinto, and their sons, 1-year-old Joaquin Ramos Pinto de Oliveira and 3-month-old Cau\u00ea Ramos Pinto de Oliveira. They were waiting for a bus to take them to the San Francisco Zoo.<\/p>\n

Pedestrian advocates Walk SF and the victims\u2019 relatives organized a vigil Thursday evening outside the library, marking two years since the crash. <\/p>\n

\"PhotosA vigil Thursday outside the West Portal branch library. | Source: Manuel Orbegozo for The Standard<\/p>\n

\u201cThey lived every moment to the absolute fullest,\u201d Anne Pozzi, 33, said Friday outside court. She became friends with the couple in 2019. \u201cThey made every moment feel special.\u201d<\/p>\n

The San Francisco Police Department found no mechanical issues with Lau\u2019s vehicle and determined that she was not impaired<\/a> at the time of the crash. She told a witness<\/a> at the scene that she was trying to park her car when she accidentally moved her foot to the gas pedal.<\/p>\n

\"AThe area around the bus stop is fenced off after Lau\u2019s sport utility vehicle crashed. | Source: Benjamin Fanjoy\/SF Chronicle\/AP\"PhotosPhotos of the family are displayed during Thursday\u2019s vigil. | Source: Manuel Orbegozo for The Standard<\/p>\n

Lau initially pleaded not guilty<\/a> to the charges. By changing her plea to no contest, she accepted a conviction without formally admitting guilt.<\/p>\n

The victims\u2019 relatives had asked that Chan reject the plea of no contest and require Lau to plead guilty. Jenkins and the victims\u2019 family said home detention, mandated community service, and the permanent revocation of her driver\u2019s license would be a more appropriate sentence than probation.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur loved ones were killed by Mrs. Lau in broad daylight, in a residential neighborhood while she was driving at an extreme speed. Since the crash, there has been no personal expression of remorse in open court and no direct acknowledgment of responsibility,\u201d relatives wrote in an online petition (opens in new tab)<\/a> asking the judge to reconsider the sentence. The petition has more than 12,000 signatures. \u201cThe Judge\u2019s indicated sentence of probation alone risks sending a message that four lives can be taken without consequence.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last year, the family accused Lau of trying to hide millions<\/a> of dollars worth of real estate to avoid paying damages in a wrongful death lawsuit. Morris has denied the claims, saying his client reorganized her property holdings because she was advised to do so and has since reversed the transactions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The driver in the 2024 crash that killed a family of four in West Portal was sentenced to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":229565,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[1312,723,1492,101,103,102,104,106,105,42876],"class_list":["post-229564","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-francisco","tag-courts","tag-crime","tag-public-safety","tag-san-francisco","tag-san-francisco-headlines","tag-san-francisco-news","tag-sf","tag-sf-headlines","tag-sf-news","tag-west-portal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229564","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=229564"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229564\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/229565"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=229564"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=229564"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=229564"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}