180 days over 10 years for drunk driver

Judge stretches out sentence so man remembers dead child


10:07 AM CDT on Friday, May 20, 2005


By ROBERT THARP / The Dallas Morning News


After jurors sentenced a 25-year-old Highland Park man to probation for the July 2003 drunk-driving related death of 10-year-old boy, District Judge Vickers Cunningham made sure the driver would not soon forget the pain he caused.

The judge sentenced Rocky F. Anderson to 180 days in jail but stretched the jail term out so Mr. Anderson spends the Christmas holidays and the victim's June birthday behind bars for the next 10 years.

While in jail, Mr. Anderson must write a letter to Braden Hopkins' family each year to mark the child's June birthday.

The jury, clearly moved by Mr. Anderson's remorse, gave him probation. The judge, moved by emotional statements addressed to Mr. Anderson by the child's relatives after the jury came back with its sentence, decided he needed to do what he could make sure Mr. Anderson never forgets what he'd done.

"It was like nothing I'd ever seen before in my life," he said. "The emotion was just so raw – both families – I can't describe it in words other than the jury was crying, the defense lawyer was crying, prosecutors were crying, and I'm doing my best not to cry."

Although the jury probated his 10-year sentence, judges in such cases are allowed to tack on as much as 180 days in jail time. He was also fined $10,000.

Prosecutors Alex Zocchi and Brandon Birmingham had asked the jury to send Mr. Anderson to prison, pointing out that unlike the victim, Mr. Anderson will still be able to spend holidays with his family.

Mr. Anderson, who had a .14 blood-alcohol content at the time of his arrest, pleaded guilty to the charge of intoxication manslaughter and went before the jury to assess punishment. In court testimony, Mr. Anderson described taking Ritalin in the 10th grade for attention-deficit disorder. He said he began abusing the drug in college and sought help from his family for the addiction.

Mr. Anderson, who has worked at times for his father's optical and hearing-aid retail business, said he had gone to an Irving nightclub with his girlfriend and was driving home when the wreck occurred. He acknowledged that he was intoxicated but said the accident happened when he looked down to answer a cellphone. When he looked up, he said, he must not have read two traffic signals that are close together on the highway. Phone records showed that he had received a phone call seconds before he placed a call to 911 dispatchers.

After the accident, Mr. Anderson said he became depressed and began abusing painkillers, according to court testimony. He received treatment for prescription drug addiction three times and said he has been sober since February 2004. He testified that he has not driven since the July 2003 accident.

Mr. Birmingham praised the judge's sentence after jurors came back with the probation sentence. "We're disappointed but respect the jury's verdict," he said. "I think it was pretty creative. It was the maximum he could do by law. ... He did everything he could given what the jury did."