消息來源：The Seattle Times
Yichun Xu, a 19-year-old community college student from China, is being arraigned on four counts of vehicular assault for a high speed crash on a residential street in Des Moines on Nov. 10, 2012. He is at the The Norm Maleng Regional Justice Center in Kent. The driver of the car he hit later died. At left is his interpreter, at right is defense attorney Scott Leist, who blocked the media from photographing his face. Judge Mary E. Roberts presided over the arraignment.
【倍可亲编辑摘要】根据美国媒体报道，该名中国留学生在去年11月10日驾驶新买的奔驰车，以在高速公路上行驶的速度穿过居民小区，并无视停车指示标牌。他撞上另一辆车，造成一名女子身亡，三人受伤。该名留学生的母亲在保释聆讯时以现金支票支付了高达两百万美元的保释金，使其于当晚8时获释。美方检查官称，虽然该名留学生已上交护照，仍然担心他会逃回中国。该检察官称，在此前的案例中，也有中国籍涉案人员在上交护照并交保后，逃回中国。由于中美间没有签署引渡条约而使美国检方无能为力。该名留学生在美国就读社区大学，并寄宿在当地家庭。
A Chinese national who faces a vehicular-homicide charge for a Nov. 10 accident that left one woman dead and three injured in Des Moines has been freed on bail after his family posted a $2 million cashier’s check.
Yichun Xu, 19, allegedly drove his newly purchased Mercedes-Benz at freeway speeds through residential areas of Des Moines and ran through a stop sign, crashing into another car.
The other driver, Brenda Gomez-Zapata, 25, later died from a severe brain injury, and three others in her car were injured. Xu, an international student, faces one count of vehicular homicide, three counts of vehicular assault and two counts of reckless endangerment. His bail was set at $2 million cash.
During a bail hearing Friday, Xu’s mother produced a cashier’s check for the total amount, said Ian Goodhew, deputy chief of staff for the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office. Once the funds were verified by the county jail, he was released at 8 that night.
“Rarely is a bail of that amount posted,” Goodhew said.
He fears Xu will flee to China, despite assurances from the man’s attorney.
“We asked for $2 million because we had flight-risk concerns,” Goodhew said Saturday. “We are very much concerned he won’t show up for court.”
One condition of Xu’s release was that he surrender his passport.
But Goodhew said there have been other cases in which Chinese nationals have surrendered their passports yet somehow have returned to China.
With no extradition treaty between the U.S. and China, Goodhew said King County has no recourse if Xu flees to his home country.
Xu couldn’t be held in jail because he had no pattern of previous violence or failure to appear, Goodhew added.
Xu’s attorney, Scott Leist, couldn’t be reached for comment.
Charging papers say that at the time of the accident, in which Xu drove 70 mph on a residential street, he didn’t have an international license and hadn’t driven in the United States.
Gomez-Zapata was driving four family members to a birthday party.
According to charging papers, Xu had $542 in his wallet at the time of his arrest and “requested several times that in lieu of being booked into jail, he requested to bail out right away,” charging papers say.
Xu lived with a host family in Olympia and had a student visa while attending South Puget Sound Community College.
An Immigration and Customs Enforcement hold placed on Xu was lifted because he had showed evidence of enrolling in school again, although it’s unclear what school.
No trial date has been set. |
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