Friends of a teenager killed in actor Lane Garrison’s drunken driving crash tried to submit a petition Tuesday asking the judge to send the former “Prison Break” actor to a real lockup for nearly seven years.
The 3,600-signature petition urges that Garrison receive the maximum sentence of six years and eight months when he is sentenced Wednesday in Superior Court in Beverly Hills.
A bailiff refused to accept the petition but said it would be accepted at the hearing if it was submitted through the district attorney’s office, said James Lee, a spokesman for the teen’s family.
The Los Angeles County district attorney’s office had not received the petition Tuesday but spokeswoman Sandi Gibbons said it was not unusual for prosecutors to submit such private communications.
“Generally, if people have letters for the judge, they many, many times submit it to the prosecutor and the prosecutor presents it to the court,” she said.
Friends and classmates of the dead teen gathered signatures after school, at football games, in front of stores and by going door to door, Lee said.
“Obviously, there’s a sense that people want closure and they want justice and they want an appropriate punishment,” Lee said. “We’re talking about the loss of a life, here.”
“You really can’t allow a celebrity ... to basically walk away from killing somebody,” Lee said. “You have to convince people that justice can be equal across the board.”
‘It’s very immoral’
Garrison’s attorney views the effort as an improper attempt to influence sentencing, which should rely on the court’s appraisal of all the facts in the case.
“It’s almost sentencing by gathering signatures” rather than by the procedures of the legal system, Harland Braun said. “They are doing it to try to influence a judge, and it’s very immoral. ...The lesson that’s being taught these high school kids is inappropriate.”
“We don’t sentence people by gathering signatures like some kind of political initiative at a parking lot at a Ralph’s supermarket.”
Garrison, 27, was driving a 2001 Land Rover on Dec. 2 when he lost control and rammed a tree. The crash killed his passenger Vahagn Setian, a Beverly Hills High School student. Two 15-year-old girls in the car survived.
Garrison had a blood-alcohol content of 0.20 percent, more than twice the legal limit for driving, and was under the influence of cocaine, according to police.
The actor pleaded guilty in May to one count of vehicular manslaughter without gross negligence, one count of driving under the influence with a blood-alcohol level of 0.15 percent or higher and a misdemeanor of providing alcohol to a minor.
At his last court appearance Aug. 2, the actor apologized to the victim’s family.
“I have relived that night every day and I think about the bad decisions I made. I can say to you I am so sorry that you lost someone because I love people. That is my first passion,” he said.