{"id":99180,"date":"2025-12-18T03:30:14","date_gmt":"2025-12-18T03:30:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/99180\/"},"modified":"2025-12-18T03:30:14","modified_gmt":"2025-12-18T03:30:14","slug":"how-a-speeding-ticket-can-be-worse-than-killing-someone-with-your-car-in-california","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/99180\/","title":{"rendered":"How a speeding ticket can be worse than killing someone with your car in California"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Robert Lewis<\/a> and Lauren Hepler<\/a>, CalMatters<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\""A\"
\n\t\t\t\tAllison Lyman stands at a table honoring her son Connor, who was killed in a traffic collision before the start of a candlelight vigil for the World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims at the Capitol in Sacramento on Nov. 16, 2025. Photo by Fred Greaves for CalMatters<\/p>\n

This story was originally published by CalMatters<\/a>. Sign up<\/a> for their newsletters.<\/p>\n

In California, you can kill someone with your car and not even have a point on your license.\u00a0<\/p>\n

That\u2019s because of a criminal justice reform law passed in 2020, allowing judges to effectively erase a misdemeanor case from existence. It shields people accused of \u201clow-level\u201d crimes from the stigma of having a conviction on their record, something that can limit work and housing opportunities.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But an ongoing CalMatters investigation<\/a> found that the new misdemeanor diversion program has also had an unintended consequence: It allows some people charged with vehicular manslaughter to keep the case off of their driving record.\u00a0<\/p>\n

That means you could face more penalties for a speeding ticket than for running someone over.<\/p>\n

Allison Lyman first heard about misdemeanor diversion from a Sacramento County prosecutor. In April, her 23-year-old son, Connor Lopez, was riding his motorcycle in Elk Grove when an oncoming car made a left turn and collided with him.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Lopez, a piano teacher, died in the roadway. The district attorney\u2019s office charged the driver, Harjit Kaur, with misdemeanor vehicular manslaughter \u2014 alleging that her failure to yield to oncoming traffic caused the fatal crash, court records show.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Then the prosecutor told Lyman to brace herself: The case could be wiped off Kaur\u2019s record and sealed from view if Kaur asks for diversion and a judge grants it.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m 43 and I will have to live the rest of my life without my son. But there\u2019ll be no record of it for her?\u201d Lyman said.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s part of a larger anger and frustration Lyman has at how the system is treating her son\u2019s death. She said she was talking to police and one of the officers kept referring to the case as \u201clow-level.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cShe took my son\u2019s life, but that\u2019s how they\u2019re seen \u2014 low-level,\u201d Lyman said.<\/p>\n

\""A\"Participants gather during a candlelight vigil for the World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims at the Capitol in Sacramento on Nov. 16, 2025. Photo by Fred Greaves for CalMatters<\/p>\n

Diversion programs have been around for decades nationwide. They essentially let a judge pause a case and order a defendant to meet certain requirements over a specified period of time \u2014 like going to rehab and doing community service. If the defendant successfully completes the terms, their case is dismissed. Some diversion programs focus on certain types of criminal defendants, such as military veterans or people with mental health issues. A prosecutor often had to agree to diversion.<\/p>\n

But the 2020 law lets judges in California order diversion for almost all misdemeanors, with few, if any, requirements that defendants have to fulfill, and over the objection of a prosecutor. Five years later, court records show defense attorneys are routinely requesting diversion not just for offenses such as shoplifting and drug possession but also for cases in which someone died.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Rochelle Beardsley, assistant chief deputy district attorney in Sacramento County, said that\u2019s like telling a victim\u2019s family that their loved one\u2019s life meant nothing.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s unfair to folks that have suffered greatly already,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

CalMatters identified about three dozen drivers who have avoided a vehicular manslaughter conviction through the misdemeanor diversion law.<\/p>\n

The actual number could be much higher because such cases are often sealed and scrubbed from searchable databases at county courthouses. CalMatters was able to identify instances in which diversion was granted by visiting courthouses around the state<\/a>. In some cases, the files weren\u2019t sealed because the defendant hadn\u2019t yet completed the terms of the diversion program and the case was still active. Other times, we found cases where diversion was successfully completed but the records were still visible in court databases.<\/p>\n

Vehicular manslaughter can be charged as a misdemeanor or felony, depending on the circumstances. Prosecutors typically charge a misdemeanor if the driver wasn\u2019t intoxicated or driving in an extremely dangerous manner \u2013 like excessive speeding.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In court, prosecutors and victims\u2019 families often make emotional pleas for justice in arguing against letting the drivers off. Sometimes the judges listen and deny diversion. When they don\u2019t, there\u2019s a clear practical impact: The defendant keeps a clean driving record. That\u2019s because diversion isn\u2019t considered a conviction, and only violations for which a motorist is convicted are listed on a person\u2019s DMV record.<\/p>\n

That means the law isn\u2019t just allowing the defendants to escape criminal penalties. It can allow them to avoid DMV punishments, too. Manslaughter typically counts as two points on a driver\u2019s record and can lead to higher insurance premiums, traffic school and even a license suspension if the driver racks up additional points for things such as speeding or running a red light.<\/p>\n

Of the three dozen drivers we identified who were granted diversion, there\u2019s no indication of the manslaughter case on any of their driving records. (Some of the records do show the driver was in a collision. But the DMV records the agency released don\u2019t reveal who was at fault or the crash\u2019s severity.) Most currently have a valid license. Nearly a third of the drivers have gotten a traffic ticket or been involved in another collision after the fatal crash, their DMV records show.<\/p>\n

That includes a young man in Los Angeles who fell asleep at the wheel and ran over a bicyclist. He got a red-light ticket just a few months after the judge granted diversion and a speeding ticket this summer, shortly after his case was dismissed. In Alameda County, a driver who was in a fatal 2022 crash that killed his passenger got a speeding ticket just two months before a judge granted diversion. In Butte County, a driver who was in a fatal 2020 crash got two traffic tickets last year shortly before a judge granted him diversion and then promptly got a speeding ticket.<\/p>\n

\""A\"Erika Pringle, with Victim Advocate Angels, embraces Allison Lyman at The World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims event at the Capitol in Sacramento on Nov. 16, 2025. Photo by Fred Greaves for CalMatters<\/p>\n

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Daniel Lowenthal helped craft the 2020 legislation. He said he\u2019s \u201cvery protective of diversion\u201d because he\u2019s seen it work so well and that it could be appropriate in some vehicular manslaughter cases.<\/p>\n

\u201cMight a court think it appropriate to divert so they don\u2019t lose their job and suffer the draconian collateral consequences? Potentially,\u201d Lowenthal said.<\/p>\n

However, he said, it would be fair for the state to ensure that the diversion still ended up on a driver\u2019s DMV record.<\/p>\n

Kaur, the woman charged in Connor Lopez\u2019s death, was arraigned on Monday in Sacramento County Superior Court. Because it\u2019s a misdemeanor case, she didn\u2019t need to show up. After the brief proceedings, her attorney, Hendrick Crowell, declined to comment. At such an early stage in the court process, there\u2019s no indication Kaur\u2019s attorney will even seek diversion. Still, Allison Lyman is already meeting with lawmakers and hoping to get the possibility of such an outcome taken off the table.<\/p>\n

For now, every Wednesday she goes to the site of her son\u2019s death along with her mom and sister, and sometimes her daughter, she said. They stand along the side of the road holding signs with Lopez\u2019s picture, urging drivers to be safe.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf there was some consequence, maybe \u2014 maybe \u2014 people would think about the responsibility when they get behind the wheel of a car,\u201d Lyman said.<\/p>\n

This article was originally published on CalMatters<\/a> and was republished under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives<\/a> license.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Robert Lewis and Lauren Hepler, CalMatters Allison Lyman stands at a table honoring her son Connor, who…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":99181,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7,9,8,2081,724,22262,1709,54095,357],"class_list":["post-99180","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-california-supreme-court","tag-criminal-justice","tag-exclude-inline-cta","tag-exclude-module","tag-license-to-kill","tag-sacramento-county"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99180","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=99180"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99180\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/99181"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=99180"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=99180"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=99180"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}