In April 2009, Ashleigh Jackson was hit by a silver BMW and seriously injured in a hit and run collision on Saratoga Los Gatos Road here in the Bay Area. One year later, police arrested Robert Schiro for the crime. Schiro at the time had a suspended license for previous DUI convictions, and it’s thought Schiro was driving drunk when he nearly killed Jackson. I’ve wondered since then how they caught the guy.
Now we know. It turns out that everybody who knew Mr Schiro knew of his crime. It was an open secret among his office staff. Then he hired Kay Blanset, a grandmother from Gilroy, as an office assistant. Kay Blanset hates drunk drivers, because she lost a teenage grandson to a drunk driver in 2002.
When Blanset heard about Schiro’s secret, she urged her co-workers to come clean and tell the police. Those cowards refused, but Blanset talked with the police, got the evidence they asked for, then quit her job.
Three cheers for Ms Blanset from Gilroy.
Schiro pled guilty last week to felony hit-and-run, and to misdemeanor charges of driving with a suspended license and another hit-and-run charge from hitting another cyclist, David Nelson, who was not seriously injured. The Santa Clara prosecutor expects Schiro will be sentenced to a year, with his sentence likely served under house arrest given his age.
More in the Mercury News: Undercover grandma nailed hit-and-run driver.
Meet the anti-heros at Robert Schiro's workplace who kept the open secret of his hit and run: RPS Properties, 5155 Stevens Creek Blvd., Suite 200, Santa Clara, Ca 95051, (408) 984-2550. And their barely functional typo-laden webface: http://rpsprop.com/
Way to go Grandma!
If you know of a crime, and protect the criminal with your silence, does that not make you an “accomplice after the fact”? Shouldn't those spineless co-workers also face a judge?
IANAL, but I don't believe failure to report a crime is considered a crime. There's the common law concept “misprison of felony,” but that's no long considered a crime unless something big is involved.
…what's disturbing is not really the issue of the legality as much as the disgusting lack of integrity amongst “professionals”…& i'd venture to say “spineless” doesn't come close to describing those folks…
…imagine being in possession of information wherein your boss, who already has a suspended license due to a 'dui', then hits another human being on a bicycle, leaving them in jeopardy of their life & like a coward, drives away because he knows the consequences of his actions “will personally will affect him”…
…the city should have the balls to yank his business license & not allow anyone involved in that office to practice in that city…
…miz blanset IS a hero…
…& thank you, a-skids…
…notice how there's no obvious e-mail address for 'rps properties' ???…i'd absolutely enjoy expressing a little well thought out vitriol over the interweb w/ those disgusting clowns…
…& btw…a year under house arrest ???…where is the punishment & opportunity for rehabilitation when it's basically “business as usual” within a limited yet friendly environment…it happens over & over & over when cyclist's are involved…the judicial system very seldom offers any real succor considering that lives are at stake…
a lot of this is incorrect information
do not believe all that you read
What goes around comes around. Schiro the SCUMBAG SHIT HEAD is the owner of PRS Properties in Santa Clara. Over the years, he has been ruthless with his tenants. If they have not been able to pay his exorbitant rents he has gone after them for all they own and forced them into bankruptcy. Ruined many lives. I pray he rots in jail.
A year under house arrest in Saratoga? Are you kidding me? Where is the justice? Is it only for the less fortunate? This asshole has destroyed many lives and has used his attorneys to wipe out the tenants who have defaulted on their rents. Bitch should go to hell.