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Cab driver who rammed 2 women gets 56-day sentence
Amrita Lal Sarker, the cab driver who struck and seriously injured two women who were standing near the gate of Eucon International University in Gualo Rai and caused minor injuries to his four passengers in July, pleaded guilty yesterday to reckless driving with bodily injury and was slapped with a 56-day prison term.
Superior Court Associate Judge Joseph N. Camacho gave the 39-year-old Sarker credit for 56 days of time served. That means Sarker will no longer serve prison time.
As part of the plea deal, the Office of the Attorney General dropped the remaining charges of speeding, failing to exercise due care while driving a vehicle, and failing to yield the right of way to pedestrians crossing the marked crosswalk.
Sarker was ordered to pay a $25 court assessment fee.
The court was supposed to hear yesterday the government’s motion that seeks to allow video teleconferencing of an essential witness at trial.
According to assistant attorney general Emily Cohen, all witnesses to Sarker’s driving were Chinese tourists and have since left Saipan for China.
Without a witness to testify to Sarker’s driving, the government will be unable to prove its case at trial, Cohen said.
She requested that the witness be allowed to testify through live video-teleconference via Skype.
Assistant public defender Tillman Clark served as counsel for Sarker.
Sarker was allegedly speeding and had swerved to avoid hitting pedestrians who were crossing the crosswalk along Chalan Pale Arnold in Gualo Rai on the night of July 16, resulting in the car mowing down two women who were standing near the gate of Eucon.
Li Chen, 51, one of two women, was last reported in critical condition and was flown to Beijing, China, on July 21 for an operation and further medical treatment.
Chen and the other woman, Zhang Hong Li, were training to become educators at Eucon, Saipan Tribune learned.
