State bill would change hit-and-run law
By Ted Miller Published: November 12, 2015
Wisconsin lawmakers are considering a bill to close a loophole in the state’s hit-and-run laws, a loophole exposed by a Green Bay man’s death.
In 2011, John Mingo Kennedy was hit while trying to navigate snow-covered Green Bay sidewalks in his wheelchair.
Witnesses testified the driver stopped but then left the scene. The driver, Mark Sperber, told investigators he thought he’d hit a garbage can.
Sperber was convicted and sentenced to 10 years in prison, but later had his conviction overturned.
Assembly Bill 201 would take the burden off prosecutors to prove drivers knew they hit someone.
“This isn’t anything that’s going to affect someone who is innocent. What it’s going to do is hold those who are guilty more accountable and close that loophole that is currently being used for those people to get off,” Kennedy’s father, Jeff Kennedy, said.
The Assembly Judiciary Committee, which heard testimony on the bill Thursday, hopes to send the bill to the floor early next year.