Doctor convicted of assaulting cyclists

Have you been following this story?  This is remarkably similar to the incident that happened to Kew, Jace, Adrian, Aaron G., Kelly B., and I on the last day of TDN in 2007.  In that incident, a pickup driver buzzed Kew and I on Roca Road, and then drove around and cut off the other four guys, slamming on his brakes when he got in front of them.  Fortunately, no crashing in that incident, unlike this one:

From velonews:

A Los Angeles Superior Court jury on Monday found Dr. Christopher Thomas Thompson guilty of assaulting cyclists by abruptly stopping his car in front of them on a hilly Los Angeles County road last year. 

Thompson, a former emergency room doctor, was found guilty of six felonies and one misdemeanor and could face as much as five years in prison. 

He was remanded and ordered held without bail until sentencing. He was handcuffed in the courtroom after the verdict was read.

Thompson was accused of assault with a deadly weapon, reckless driving causing specified bodily injury, battery with serious bodily injury and mayhem. The most serious charges stem from a July 4, 2008, incident on Mandeville Canyon Road, the road where Thompson lives, where he was accused of abruptly stopping his car in front of two cyclists. Other charges relate to a similar incident on the same road that did not result in injuries.

In the July 4 incident, the two cyclists hit the rear of Thompson's car; one slammed through the rear window, the other catapulted over the car into the road. In the earlier incident, the cyclists said they narrowly avoided hitting the rear of Thompson's car.

I am hopeful that this will set a national precedent for how these situations are handled in the court system.