Man arrested for filming fatal car crash instead of helping.

[AndaliteBandit]

When Paul Pelton saw the scene of a fatal car crash this week, he didn’t try to comfort the victims, who were both teenagers, and he didn’t help them, authorities say. Instead, according to police, Pelton started filming the scene on his cellphone.

Pelton, 41, is now facing a misdemeanor charge of vehicular trespassing. Police arrested him Wednesday, according to reports, and he has since posted bond.

“We searched to try to find anything to charge him with,” Lorain Police Detective Buddy Sivert told Reuters, noting that Pelton was charged for entering a crime scene, but not for filming what was unfolding there, nor for trying to peddle the footage to news organizations. “It is not a crime to stick a camera where a kid is dying or try to sell it.”

After a Honda sedan flew over railroad tracks and crashed into a house Monday, Pelton filmed the aftermath on his cellphone’s camera, the Northeast Ohio Media Group reports.

The crash happened in Lorain, Ohio, which is about 30 miles from Cleveland.

Others who were in the area tried to help get to the teens, but Pelton didn’t offer any assistance.

“He went right in after the crash, before the rescuers or police arrived,” Sivert said.

According to a police report cited by the Northeast Ohio Media Group, Pelton can be heard in the video referring to the boys trapped in the car as “idiots.”

“He opened a back door and leaned in to film the boys and then walked around to the front door as he continued recording,” the Media Group reported. “At no time did he try to help either of the boys, the report said.”

The driver and the passenger were both 17. One died at an Ohio hospital; the condition of the other victim wasn’t immediately known, according to the Media Group.

Pelton posted the video to Facebook, police allege, and later tried to sell it to multiple TV stations.

“I just wanted to educate people to slow down,” Pelton said in a Facebook apology video, according to an ABC affiliate. “I didn’t do that to have some type of gore video.”

It’s unclear whether Pelton has an attorney.

“The Lorain Police Department would like to remind citizens that they are allowed and encouraged to help one another in emergencies if they can do so safely, and that rendering aid or comfort to a dying young man and his severely injured friend is a commendable and kindly act,” the department said in a news release. “Persons are not, however, allowed to trespass into a person’s vehicle criminally and without permission for the seemingly singular cause of filming a young man’s dying moments, for profit.”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/m...him/?tid=sm_fb

Being a jerk isn't a crime, but he crossed the line when he opened the car door just to get a better view. What a scumbag.

[Loyrl]

If I was in a car and possibly injured and someone was doing that to me, it would seem like torture.

[Flutterguy]

Good. Throw the book at him. This kind of shit needs to stop.

[apepi]

I would say if he just was in his car or w/e he would be fine, but to open their door and to film it is too far. But we have to be careful, just filming something should not be illegal, like police work.

[Very Tired]

I blame Youtube.

[SteveRocks]

I do believe this "article," is a summary of the movie Nightcrawler.

[Ciddy]

Yeah...that guy is a sack of shit.

[Elite Peon]

So , wait . I have seen tons of car crashes where people are standing around not helping ...should they get arrested ? The difference being he shot some footage which is not illegal . Also, they will never convict on the stupid charge they brought against him . I am not saying he is not a shitty useless waste of oxygen but he did nothing illegal as far as US laws are concerned .His charges are some type of personal vendetta ( notice the officer said " we searched for anything to charge him " )which should not be apart of law enforcement .

- - - Updated - - -

There isn't a book to throw, omission is generally not a cause of a criminal act, with a few exceptions regarding the care of children or the ill.

We as a society do not want to make it a legal obligation for you to put yourself in harms way to assist others. You can't be charged for not running into a burning building in order to reenact that one seen from Spider-man.

The issue here is that the guy did something incredibly fucked up, wherein the protection is intended for people in shock or simply incapable of helping people. As such, the police got him on the only crime they could, which is mere semantics in relation to his actions.

Despite the guy's morbid actions, I can't support the behave of police and prosecutors to 'get them on something, anything', because rarely achieves anything, if it even succeeds at all. The case I always bring up in conversation is US v Drew, better known as the MySpace suicide case. In that case the prosecutor's desire to convict that woman of anything led to the use of obscure hacking legislation, that would have had the effect of criminalizing breaches in online ToS under the common law. That was a large part of why the case had to be thrown out (among other reasons, the prosecutor's case paper-thin), the ramifications of bending the laws were too great.

Such cases don't help anyone, least of all the family's involved, whose torment of the whole ordeal is stretched out for years. All for nothing, because some prosecutor wanted to play crusader.

The discussion lies in whether omission should be criminal more often. I would say no, but the whole idea of the law is to deter behavior that society views as so wrong that we empower the state to react. This story would no doubt illicit that reaction from the old 'reasonable person', so perhaps it does need to be looked at. This guy though, he'll get away with it.

Could not have said it better myself very well written.

[Xeones]

So , wait . I have seen tons of car crashes where people are standing around not helping ...should they get arrested ? The difference being he shot some footage which is not illegal . Also, they will never convict on the stupid charge they brought against him . I am not saying he is not a shitty useless waste of oxygen but he did nothing illegal as far as US laws are concerned .His charges are some type of personal vendetta ( notice the officer said " we searched for anything to charge him "which should not be apart of law enforcement .

Reading may be hard, but it helps.

He is being charged for opening the car door to get a better shot of the dying kids. Vehicular trespassing.

[unbound]

Title is not only misleading, it is directly contradicted by your link:

Lorain Police Detective Buddy Sivert told Reuters, noting that Pelton was charged for entering a crime scene, but not for filming what was unfolding there, nor for trying to peddle the footage to news organizations. “It is not a crime to stick a camera where a kid is dying or try to sell it.”

[Darsithis]

I can't even explain the emotion I'm feeling at the idea that someone would film the death of another person and essentially laugh about it.

He doesn't need punishment. He needs mental help, asap. To stand aside while a child dies is abhorrent.

[Elite Peon]

Reading may be hard, but it helps.

He is being charged for opening the car door to get a better shot of the dying kids. Vehicular trespassing.

Reading may help but you having basic comprehension would help YOU . It's not illegal to open a car door in a motor vehicle accident . From the stand point of law enforcement he intended to help but was scared to harm them further . You are doing nothing but making excuses for your own feelings just like the police who charged him .

[Bathrezz]

I would have started recording aswell. I need to contribute to the gore society on reddit.

[Masark]

He doesn't need punishment. He needs mental help, asap. To stand aside while a child dies is abhorrent.

He needs mental help and he needs to away from society while he receives it.

[Melkandor]

What a fucking jerk, how can you feel justified opening a car door to get a better view of two dying people just to make some stupid video to get some Internet points. Pathetic really.

[I Push Buttons]

Reading may help but you having basic comprehension would help YOU . It's not illegal to open a car door in a motor vehicle accident . From the stand point of law enforcement he intended to help but was scared to harm them further . You are doing nothing but making excuses for your own feelings just like the police who charged him .

An example of that kind of law:

"Criminal trespass to vehicles. (1) A person commits the offense of criminal trespass to vehicles when the person purposely or knowingly and without authority enters any vehicle or any part of a vehicle."

Such is ignored if helping someone via common sense/Good Samaritan laws, but the guy wasn't helping... In fact he was doing the opposite... He was filming and calling them idiots and literally recorded as one kid died.

[Xeones]

Reading may help but you having basic comprehension would help YOU . It's not illegal to open a car door in a motor vehicle accident . From the stand point of law enforcement he intended to help but was scared to harm them further . You are doing nothing but making excuses for your own feelings just like the police who charged him .

Under what basis are you making your argument? The cops have film the man made as the basis of theirs. Yours seems quite flimsy.

[SmokesTooMuch]

Yea, this was the talk to the town @ work today. PoS should be beaten with a brick. I live in Elyria, the town directly to the south of Lorain.

[imabanana]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/m...him/?tid=sm_fb

Being a jerk isn't a crime, but he crossed the line when he opened the car door just to get a better view. What a scumbag.

What he did, simply by not helping people in danger (without even talking about filming), is actually a crime in many countries.

[Musta]

Omission is a crime. Period.