Internet outrage
over traffic tickets
in crash death

By BRIAN GEOGHAN
Dispatch/Sunday News

   Perhaps spurred by Internet recruiters, motorcycle activists have mounted an organized protest against the York County District Attorney's decision to charge a state trooper with only summary traffic offenses after a crash that killed a motorcyclist.
   Trooper Gerald Devlin was charged with reckless driving, driving on the wrong side of the road and driving at an unsafe speed after he crossed the center line and struck an oncoming motorcyclist, 39-year-old Kenneth Fowler, of Monkton, Md., on Route 851 in Codorus Township March 29.
   Some of those activists have expressed their outrage on The York Dispatch website, e-mailing from as far away as St. Louis. Some called the incident "murder" and demanded more severe charges be leveled against Devlin. Some made references to a list of contacts circulating through the Internet, indicating the responses were solicited. The reactions don't surprise District Attorney Stan Rebert, who had to make the call in the case.
   "I'm not surprised at the outrage among the motorcycle community, or the outrage among the family of the deceased," Rebert said. "I don't blame them at all. It's a difficult decision; reasonable minds can differ.
   "It's a tough case, and I don't think that police are necessarily immune to prosecution. In this case, I didn't feel we'd have any success in a trial on anything but the summary charges."
   Rebert said he has been contacted by a family member, has attempted to contact him, and he intends to return the call. When the accident occurred, a "motorcycle guy" contacted Rebert, with concerns about the accident and other complaints about state police.
   "I heard him out, he had some other complaints about the state police, which I pursued and basically, I was not able to confirm any of the complaints he had," Rebert said.
Another case:
   In another fatal accident involving a motorcycle, on Jan. 30, a woman driving a van pulled away from a stop sign into the path of Scott Klepper, 35, who was riding west on Route 30 in Jackson Township.
   Klepper was killed. The driver of the van, Joan Pensyl, 42, was charged with only a summary offense -- failure to yield -- Jackson Township Police Chief Marcus Ruff said. Ruff's staff investigated the accident and determined Klepper wasn't speeding -- his motorcycle wasn't severely damaged and it wasn't far from the approximate point of impact -- and that Pensyl pulled out in front of him.
   "There has to be something beyond just carelessness before it rises to the level" of vehicular homicide, Ruff said. Rebert agreed. He said the determining factor must be:
   "Is the act gross negligence."
   "You have to look at the degree of negligence, is it ordinary negligence, or is it gross negligence, or criminal negligence? Going through a stop sign, that's ordinary negligence," he said, speaking hypothetically. "There might be a civil case, but it doesn't call for criminal damages," Rebert said. "If you go through a stop sign 90 miles per hour, it's gross negligence."