Crash brings call for tougher penalties
Teen faces alcohol charge after fatality
For the past three weeks, Michelle Marean has been shuttling back and forth from California: to bury her mother, to care for her sister, and to ask legislators on Beacon Hill to change the laws that could allow the teenager charged with plowing into them to escape a severe penalty.
Marean was in Lynn District Court on May 18 for the arraignment of Jonathan Caruso, the 18-year-old charged in a crash that killed Marean's mother, Carole, 67, and injured her sister, Charlotte, 42, as they took a Saturday morning walk through their Saugus neighborhood.
Michelle Marean, 46, plans to return to Massachusetts for each of Caruso's court appearances.
And she will be here tomorrow, when Charlotte is scheduled to undergo a five-hour brain operation that could leave her blind in one eye, the first of three major surgeries in the coming months.
Michelle Marean is outraged that Caruso will not face separate charges for allegedly injuring her sister, who now relies on a walker to navigate around her Saugus house and who will not be able to return to work for months, maybe years.
"I don't think anybody realizes how little a slap on the hand this kid is going to get," said Marean, a telecommunications engineer and real estate broker.
Caruso, a senior at Saugus High School, pleaded not guilty last month to charges of negligent motor vehicle homicide, operating under the influence of alcohol and being a minor transporting liquor.
Caruso's lawyers did not respond to calls for comment. He is due to return to court July 7 for a pretrial hearing.
Steve O'Connell, a spokesman for Essex District Attorney Jonathan W. Blodgett, declined to discuss the charges. When asked if additional charges could be filed, O'Connell said only that the crash remains under investigation.
Late last month, Marean met with aides to Senators Thomas M. McGee and Anthony D. Galluccio and Representatives Mark V. Falzone and Kathi-Anne Reinstein at the State House. Marean is asking legislators to pass tougher minimum sentences for vehicular homicide convictions. She said that if lawmakers do not act, she will try to promote a ballot initiative.
"I think it's too late for my family," Marean said. "At this point, we're choosing not to put our anger toward Jonathan, not toward the district attorneys, who are just doing their jobs enforcing the laws already on the books, but just trying to put a movement forward in the state so that no family has to go through what we're going through."
Massachusetts law calls for someone convicted of motor vehicle homicide while intoxicated to serve at least five but not more than 20 years in prison, said Anne Tiegen, a policy specialist at the National Conference of State Legislatures in Washington, D.C.
Under Massachusetts law, drunken-driving crashes that cause injury are punishable by not less than 90 days but not more than a year in prison, Tiegen said.
The Mareans worry that Caruso's relatively low blood-alcohol content, measured at 0.02 percent 90 minutes after the crash, could weaken the case against him. The reading, they say, does not seem to reflect the 10 beers Caruso told police he had consumed before driving, according to the police report. Because of what she believes was a delay in measuring his blood-alcohol content, Marean fears that Caruso could face less prison time, as Massachusetts law does not dictate a minimum sentence for vehicular homicide when the driver is not intoxicated.
Under current law, the blood-alcohol limit in Massachusetts is 0.08 for drivers 21 and older; the limit for those under 21 is 0.02 percent.
Victims tend to want defendants charged to the fullest extent of the law, said James Alan Fox, a criminology professor at Northeastern University. Prosecutors, though, must make their decisions on behalf of the state, using the existing legal framework.
Victims and their families "want justice, they want to be made whole, and the only thing within their power is to hope that the criminal system will work in their favor and be as punitive and harsh as possible," Fox said.
"But, of course, the role of our system is to balance the interests of the accused with the interests of the victims."
Fox said it may not make much difference that Caruso is not charged with injuring Charlotte Marean, because the penalty would probably be less than for motor vehicle homicide if he is convicted of that.
In addition, a judge could order that any sentences be served concurrently.
Matt Collette can be reached at mpcollette@globe.com. 
