425 8th Street, NW
Washington, DC 20004
August 4, 1996
Navy News
To the Editor
Dear Sir,
On January 31, 1996, United States Navy pilot Lt. Cmdr. Michael R. Shand, my brother, was killed by a drunk driver in Hanford California near Lemoore Naval Air Station. Lt. Cmdr. Shand had recently been released from a one year hospitalization after contracting a rare brain fungus while on duty in the Persian Gulf. He was a few months shy of his fifteen year pension.
On July 31, 1996, in Kings County Superior Court, Deral H. fike II pleaded "no contest" to charges of driving under the influence of alcohol and vehicular manslaughter. In court, Mr. Fike, who had one prior DUI conviction and who trucks hazardous waste for a living, admitted killing Lt. Cmdr. Shand. He entered the plea bcause his attorney had been successful in having the more serious charge of "gross negligence" dropped despite Mr. Fike's registering a blood alcohol level of .13 at the time of the accident. The legal blood alcohol limit in California is .08.
Mr. Fike now awaits sentencing. The penalty for this crime ranges from 18 months probation to 4 years in a state penitentiary. According to Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD), it is very unlikely Mr. Fike will go to jail. In more than 90% of these cases the offender receives either probation and a one-year suspension of driving privileges. This is unacceptable.
Within the next 4 weeks, Mr. Fike will be sentencesd by Superior Court Judge George Orndoff. As a part of the sentencing Judge Orndoff must, by law, consider the impact of the crime on the family of the victim and the community at large. The family of Lt. Cmdr. Michael Shand implores every man in the United States Navy to write to Judge Orndoff and urge him to impose the severest sentence.
The Honorable
Judge George Orndoff
Kings County superior Court
Hanford, California 93230
Please mail or fax a copy of your letter to Governor pete Wilson of California. Please express to him your outrage that in the State of California the penalty for killing a United States Naval Officer can be a few months probation and the loss of driving privileges.
The Honorable
Pete Wilson
Office of the Governor
State Capital Building
Sacramento, California 95814
Fax 916-445-4633
Michael Shand was a kind and loving man. He grew up in Metuchen, New Jersey. He was a graduate of Rutgers Univeristy. He was a United States Naval Officer and an FA-18 carrier pilot. He was married to a young Swedish girl he met overseas. He struggled with a terrible illness contracted while serving his country. The man who killed him should, at the very least, go to jail.
Thank you for your attention.
Sincerely
Susan Shand
Washington, DC
202-347-2151
FYI,
The following is from the Hanford (California) Sentinel, Febraury 1, 1996
CAR CRASH KILLS PILOT FROM LNAS
Michele Seaburg
Sentinel Staff Writer
A Driver arrested under suspicion of drunk driving walked away while the driver of the other car was pronounced dead on the scene.
Lemoore Naval Sir Station pilot Mike Shand, 37, was killed when he crashed head-on with Deral Fike, 32, of Hanford, on Fargo Avenue east of 12th Avenue,
California Highway patrol officers arrested Fike for driving under the influence.
According to CHP, Fike was westbound on Fargo when he crossed the center line at approximately 50 mph and slammed into Shand who was eastbound.
Fike was arrested at the scene after a breath test showed a result of .13.
The legal limit is .07, said CHP Officer Rod Allen. Anything over that is considered driving under the influence.
Shand was well known locally after surviving a battle with an unusual brain fungus in 1992.
While on cruise aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln in August 1992, Shand suffered from headaches and memory loss. After completing paperwork one afternoon, he took a nap. When a flight surgeon found him the next day, Shand had lost much of his memory and was flown to a hospital in Bahrain.
Days later he was diagnosed with a rare but non-fatal brain lesion the size of a grape -- cryptococus meningitis -- similar to Valley Fever.
Shand's story made its way into news reports as he recuperated over the next two years with his wife Marioara at his side.
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