We do not understand what is holding prosecutors up in the case of Candy Baldwin. She is the teen who sideswiped a tractor-trailer driven by 57-year-old John Short, of Willard, in August on the Bay Bridge, causing him to lose control of his truck and roll into the water, killing him.
The 19-year-old told police she was driving back from her mother’s wedding and fell asleep. But we’d like to know whether there is more to the story — like whether she had been drinking. So far, we don’t know.
The Maryland Transportation Authority Police submitted a report about the accident to Queen Anne’s County State’s Attorney Frank Kratovil Jr.’s office Oct. 13. Kratovil told The Examiner he requested additional information. We’re guessing the toxicology report was part of the report, so what’s the hold-up?
Baldwin had a history of traffic violations prior to the accident and once posted a photo of herself on her MySpace page with a bottle of rum behind the wheel of her Camaro and others showing her with beer cans and drinking. Her revised page limits access and reveals a self-centered woman more concerned with how she feels than with the death she caused and the pain she inflicted on Short’s family.
“Thanks for those who have supported me, and I’m sorry for those who haven’t, because you can’t possibly imagine the way I feel,” she writes.
For the sake of Short and his grieving family, prosecutors must move quickly to make the toxicology report public and decide whether Baldwin’s actions deserve prosecution. Baldwin could show at least a modicum of respect for the life she ended by removing her MySpace page. She is not the one who deserves sympathy.
