nwasianweekly.com
Mar. 8, 2008

No jail for driver who killed Tatsuo Nakata

By Staff

Northwest Asian Weekly

Rabbi Ephraim Schwartz, the driver who struck and killed Matthew “Tatsuo” Nakata in November 2006, was given a two-year deferred sentence Feb. 28. The 29-year-old Nakata was chief-of-staff for former Seattle City Councilman David Della at the time of his death.

Seattle Municipal Court Judge George Holifield suspended Schwartz’s license for two years, fined him $500 and mandated 500 hours of community service.

Earlier this year, a jury had found Schwartz guilty of assault-injury by vehicle and the prosecutor called for the maximum penalty, up to a year of prison time and a $5,000 fine.

It was the first guilty verdict under a two-year-old city law, which says a driver can be convicted of assault if he commits a traffic infraction that results in a critical injury or death of a pedestrian.

The King County Prosecutor’s Office had chosen to not prosecute Schwartz with a felony because he was not intoxicated or driving recklessly.

Friends and family of Nakata had been heartened by the jury’s ruling, but were crushed by the judge’s sentencing. The deferred sentence means that if Schwartz, 37, has no infractions of the law after two years, the charge will be cleared from his record.

Della said, “I think it was an outrageous sentencing. There was no justice for such a promising young man. Schwartz got off as if nothing happened.”

Della said that he and others were organizing with Nakata’s family and would soon announce further actions the community could take to register their anger at the sentencing and call for stricter enforcement of pedestrian safety laws.

A community member who asked to be identified only by her last name, Chin, said, “As far as I’m concerned, (Schwartz) is a murderer. He took someone’s life.”

Prosecutors said Schwartz was talking on his cell phone when he struck Nakata in a crosswalk at 47th Avenue Southwest in West Seattle. Senior Assistant City Attorney Kevin Kilpatrick said there were no skid marks at all showing that Schwartz tried to brake. According to cell phone records, Schwartz made or received three phone calls during the time he was driving after leaving his house and before he struck Nakata.

Schwartz testified that he never saw Nakata.

Schwartz has a history of reckless driving, with at least eight moving violations, from running a red light to hitting two pedestrians in two years.

In 2005, Schwartz hit a bicyclist, Ilsa Govan. Schwartz was cited for driving on the wrong side of the road, but the charge was later removed from his record. Govan suffered from injuries requiring treatment for a year and testified at Schwartz’s sentencing.

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