Fatal-crash driver seeks bankruptcy
The man who sped through a north Spokane stoplight and killed 15-year-old Tesia Parris in July 2002 has filed a bankruptcy petition to escape a $3.6 million jury award to her family.
Abdulwahab Al-Jazairy, 23, also wants a bankruptcy judge to excuse him from paying restitution he agreed to pay as part of a plea bargain in his separate criminal case.
“It seems kind of ironic that the guy is using our court system to avoid court-ordered judgments while he is being deported,” Parris family attorney Kevin Mahoney said.
He said Al-Jazairy has completed his state prison term and is now in federal custody in Seattle, awaiting deportation to his native Saudi Arabia.
Mahoney said he and his legal partner, Tom Roberts, are checking whether Al-Jazairy has standing to seek bankruptcy protection while being deported.
“It really doesn’t much matter,” Mahoney said. “He’s going to be deported, anyway, and good luck trying to collect over there (in Saudi Arabia).”
He said there is no treaty covering the civil judgment, and negotiations to persuade Al-Jazairy’s parents or the Saudi Arabian government to pay have been “pretty one-sided.”
Mahoney and Deputy Spokane County Prosecutor Brian O’Brien said the debts listed in Al-Jazairy’s bankruptcy petition appear to be wildly inaccurate.
Also, O’Brien said, Al-Jazairy cannot be relieved of his debt to the state Crime Victims Compensation Fund. Civil judgments may be erased in Bankruptcy Court, but not criminal penalties, including court-ordered restitution to the crime victims fund, O’Brien said.
Al-Jazairy listed a $72,298 obligation to the fund, but as part of an Oct. 1 plea bargain that shaved 23/4 years off Al-Jazairy’s original prison sentence, he paid $12,500 in restitution on the spot and promised to pay the additional $87,500.
The plea bargain resulted from a U.S. Supreme Court ruling last summer that invalidated most above-standard sentences in Washington, including Al-Jazairy’s 63/4-year sentence for vehicular homicide and vehicular assault.
In a separate civil trial, a jury awarded a total of $3.6 million to Parris’ estate and parents, but Al-Jazairy’s bankruptcy petition overstates the debt by $2.5 million. A portion of the award was incorrectly listed twice, Mahoney said.
Also, Al-Jazairy says he owes $1,000 to Deputy Prosecutor O’Brien, but O’Brien said no such debt exists.
Among the other debts Al-Jazairy lists are a $1,000 traffic fine, a $500 telephone bill and $10,000 owed to Mark Vovos, the attorney who defended him in his criminal and civil trials.
Meanwhile, Mahoney said, the Parris family has appealed several aspects of Superior Court Judge Neal Rielly’s handling of the lawsuit. The appeal cites rulings that Mahoney and Roberts believe contributed improperly to a jury decision that prevented the family from collecting damages from the Washington State Patrol.
The jury said Trooper Robert Fiorentino was negligent in pursuing Al-Jazairy on West Francis at freeway speeds without a siren. But the jury also said Fiorentino’s negligence didn’t cause Al-Jazairy to hit the Parris family pickup in the intersection of Francis and Monroe.
Parris, two sisters and their mother were on their way home to Blanchard, Idaho, in a Ford F-350 pickup driven by their father, Harry Parris. His injuries were the basis for Al-Jazairy’s vehicular assault conviction.