The Associated Press
MIAMI (AP) -- An appeals court has overturned a police officer’s conviction for killing a pedestrian while speeding on a non-emergency call.
Audria Gensler, 37, of the Miami-Dade Police Department was convicted in September of vehicular homicide for speeding through a blinking yellow light, killing 41-year-old Robin Marie Ivey in May 2000.
Gensler was sentenced to three years in prison followed by two years of house arrest, but was released while she appealed the verdict.
The Third District Court of Appeal on Wednesday found Circuit Judge Jerald Bagley should not have allowed testimony from a medical examiner who did not perform Ivey’s autopsy.
The examiner’s estimate that Gensler was traveling about 80 mph when her squad car hit Ivey was a conclusion “beyond his field of specialty,” the appellate panel said.
Bagley also should not have prohibited evidence of crack and alcohol in the victim’s blood and that area prostitutes “commonly step into the path of oncoming vehicles to get the drivers to stop,” the judges said.
The prosecution’s arguments that Gensler violated police department protocols also should not have been allowed, since they served to hold her to a higher standard than any “ordinary citizen.”
“You can see in how many different portions the (court) said the judge was wrong,” said Andre Rouviere, Gensler’s attorney. “We feel that finally somebody has seen the light as to what should have happened in that trial.”
The state attorney’s office had two weeks to decide whether to ask for another trial.
Gensler left police work and works in the private sector, Rouviere said.