SJC orders trial in fatality

It's been more than three years, but Thomas Jango is still looking for justice for his brother Robert "Bobby" Jango, who was struck and killed by a truck on a Weymouth street while riding his bicycle.

"I want Bobby to get his day in court," Jango said about his 39-year-old brother, who was struck after the truck ran a red light on April 12, 2004.

"I don't want some judge saying, 'Sorry your brother's dead, but too bad.' "

Yesterday, the state's highest court ruled that the truck driver, Derrel G. Millican of Ohio, must stand trial on charges of negligent motor vehicle homicide and overturned a district court judge's ruling that ended the criminal case against Millican.

In a unanimous ruling, the Supreme Judicial Court said judges do not have the legal power to apply a common legal tactic known as "continued without a finding" in cases of misdemeanor negligent motor-vehicle homicide such as the one involving Millican.

The SJC said that the Legislature has rewritten state laws on drunken driving numerous times but has maintained an equally strong concern about deaths caused by negligent drivers.

"While concerns for drunk driving may have provided specific impetus for subsequent legislative amendments, there is no reason to believe the Legislature was any less concerned about highway deaths caused by criminally negligent drivers than those caused by drunk drivers," Spina wrote in rejecting Millican's legal arguments.

Millican's lawyer, Steven J. Rappaport, denounced the SJC's ruling and said the Legislature should rewrite the law.

"This is the wrong result," he said.

He said Millican had not been driving erratically and simply had not seen Jango. Now, he said, the professional truck driver faces the loss of his driver's license for up to 15 years, if convicted.

Andrea Nardone, staff attorney for the Massachusetts District Attorneys Association, said the ruling clears up confusion that has existed since 2003 about the legality of disposing of cases the way Judge Thomas Barrett did in his earlier ruling involving Millican.

She said the SJC has now made it clear that drivers must lose their licenses, possibly for as long as 15 years, when convicted of negligent motor-vehicle homicide.

In cases in which prosecutions were continued without a finding, drivers did not always lose their license, she said.

"That was a huge issue for victim's families," she said.

Norfolk District Attorney William R. Keating said his office pursued the case because other judges have disposed of similar cases in the same way, an outcome that he said often frustrates relatives of victims because they feel as if their loss is not being acknowledged by the driver or the court system.

"It's extremely important to relatives of victims that a resolution with some meaning to them is given," Keating said. "And I think the same sentiment was echoed by the Legislature.'

Thomas Jango said his parents and sister were devastated by Robert's death and by the end of the prosecution of Millican.

He said his family had attended every court hearing and had addressed Barrett before the judge issued his decision in Millican's favor.

"We didn't think it was going to go our way," Thomas Jango said of the SJC's ruling. "We just thought that we were going to be pushed aside and that nobody cared that Bobby was dead. The SJC cared about the process, and that is encouraging."

He said the family will follow the renewed prosecution of Millican as closely as they have since his brother was fatally injured a half mile from the furniture store where he worked.

"I'm not looking for the guy to go to jail for the rest of his life, but there should be some consequences for his actions," Jango said.

"It's been a hard process."

(Correction: Because of incorrect information provided by the office of the Norfolk district attorney, a story in the June 9 City & Region section incorrectly described the accident that killed Robert "Bobby" Jango, who was hit by a truck while riding his bicycle in Weymouth in 2004. According to court records, the driver of the truck, Derrel G. Millican, was not cited for running any traffic signals.)