Malik Sealy was the Minnesota Timberwolves NBA basketball star who was tragically killed by a drunk driver on May 20, 2000. That tragedy happened in St. Louis Park, which is in Amy Klobuchar’s Hennepin County. Amy Klobuchar has been patting herself on the back this entire campaign about her work thwarting repeat offenders, especially those who drive drunk.

Well, she did a terrible job (ahem) ‘prosecuting’ this one too!

The man convicted in the drunken-driving crash that killed Minnesota Timberwolves guard Malik Sealy six years ago has been caught allegedly driving drunk again, authorities said.
Souksangouane Phengsene, 50, was charged Tuesday in Hennepin County District Court with two counts of felony drunken driving after police arrested him in Crystal early Sunday.

Police stopped him after they saw him weaving over the left center lane and into the curb near W. Broadway and Corvallis Avenue N. A breath test revealed a blood-alcohol level of 0.21 percent. The legal limit for driving is 0.08 percent.

In 2004, Phengsene was released from the Faribault prison after serving a four-year sentence for criminal vehicular homicide in the crash that killed Sealy.

According to state sentencing guidelines, Phengsene could face an additional four years in prison if convicted of the current charges, authorities said. (Source: Strib)

The guy killed someone, and got 4 years. Talk about going soft on drunk drivers.
Check this story about ‘prosecuting drunk drivers’ out.

Shortly after 11:00 p.m. on February 16, Nicole Gebeck drove the wrong way down Interstate 94 west out of Minneapolis. She collided head-on with Stanley Croissant, a 36-year-old father of two, killing him instantly. Gebeck had a blood alcohol level of .25, more than twice the legal limit–which, in the state of Minnesota, is .10.

About 4:00 a.m. on May 20, Souksangouane Phengsene drove the wrong direction down Highway 100 in St. Louis Park. He collided head-on with Malik Sealy, the Minnesota Timberwolves forward and father of one, killing him instantly. Phengsene had a blood alcohol level of .19.

Last month Gebeck and Phengsene were both convicted of committing criminal vehicular homicide. Despite the striking similarity between their crimes, and state sentencing guidelines designed to ensure that everyone is treated the same under the law, the futures of Gebeck and Phengsene will be very different. Phengsene is to serve four years in prison. Gebeck will be back at work in two months.
“You want a certain sense of fairness in the system,” says Hennepin County Attorney Amy Klobuchar, who met with Stanley Croissant’s frustrated family and friends after the Gebeck sentence was handed down. “Because it discredits it for everyone if you have such close factual situations with such wildly different sentences.”

Diane Krenz and Karel Moersfelder, the assistant county attorneys from Klobuchar’s office who prosecuted Gebeck’s case, actually lobbied Judge Stephen Aldrich to double the penalty called for in the sentencing guidelines–four years in prison–and put her behind bars for eight years. Their argument was that the defendant was not only very drunk but grossly reckless, having driven at close to 85 mph for nearly eight miles before the accident happened. The county attorney’s office intends to appeal the judge’s decision, arguing that there were not sufficient grounds to soften the sentence called for in the guidelines.

In the Sealy case, despite the high profile of the victim, the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office sought a sentence of only four years in prison.

What was that about “with out fear or favor” again? I hate bringing up such tragedies but it is necessary to highlight the absolute failure Amy Klobuchar has been as County Attorney. She’s never prosecuted a case. She’s never even been in the ’second chair’ at a trial in Hennepin County. She’s running on her record, and here is more proof that that record is dismal.

People die in Amy Klobuchar’s Hennepin County, and the people who kill them get off with a slap on the wrist. I’d love to hear what the MADD crowd and Phillip Cummings (from her Ashamed ad) have to say about Klobuchar’s failure to keep drunk drivers like this off the street.