Crash victim's father fighting to keep suspect in jail
FAIRVIEW, Ore. – A Fairview father is upset that the suspected drunk driver in a crash that sent his 21-year-old daughter to the hospital and killed her 20-year-old friend could be out of jail before his trial begins.
Bruce Butner told KATU News on Sunday that if his daughter can’t come home, the man accused of putting her in the hospital shouldn’t be allowed to leave jail.
“It’s my baby girl, you know?” Butner said. “It’s hard. I try to give her a hug when I can. Sometimes I get upset and I just sit there and she wants to know if I’m mad.”
Brent Warstler has been in the Multnomah County Jail since he was accused of hitting the two women with his truck in Portland's Old Town last month. Police arrested him for DUII.
Rebecca Bray, 20, died in the Jan. 20 crash. Brandi Butner, 21, was taken to the hospital where she is still recovering from her injuries.
Brandi still can’t stand up by herself or hold her 6-month-old boy in her arms, Butner said.
“Her emotions are just going wild right now,” said Butner. “She has anger. She cries because [she says] ‘dad, how come this happened to me? I did everything right,’ and she did.”
Butner says he brings his grandson to see Brandi every day.
“She wants to come home to her son. She has moments where she cries a lot.”
He said he had to tell his daughter that the driver accused of hitting her last month could be out of jail as early as Monday.
“She was really upset and saying the same thing I’m saying right now. ‘Why does he get to go home and I can’t?’ And of course she breaks down.”
Butner said he will be in court Monday for Warstler’s hearing and will be prepared to give a statement to the judge if it would help keep Warstler will stay behind bars.
The district attorney's office says there are several factors that go into the outcome of a release hearing, including severity of the crime, whether the defendant can post bail and whether the defendant has ties to the area with family or work.
“Unfortunately he’s taken the life of Becky and pretty much destroyed my daughter’s life at this point,” Butner said. “My daughter can’t come home. Becky’s never going to come home again. So you have to think about where the law is to even think about allowing him to get out.”
Many Civilized Nations have Punishments that actually deter Drunk Driving. I know several Scandinavian Countries that a Drunk Driver does One Year in Jail for the first offence and they lose the right to drive for life period. Maybe we should do something like that.
 @swede760 One particularly smart thing the Swedes do, is to proportion the fine assessed to the offender based upon their ability to pay.Â
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 @Dr. Rawdog No I do not have a link my information is first hand but it is 38 years old. I will ask my cousins in Sweden what the current laws are, I doubt they have changed. They are very strict about Alcohol over there, it is all bought and sold through the State.
What can I say, a lot of things have changed in the last 38 years. Maybe take a look at South America.
This man deserves to stay where he is! He made the choice to drink,and drive.He killed someone,and left another person seriously injured.When someone dies,or is seriously injured,the person responsible needs to be punished.I am sure they will put resrictions on him,but I am also sure that he will continue to drink and drive.
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@August100 Self-induced stupidity is not a "REAL DISEASE". Usualy a real disease like cancer is not self induced by over-use of a recreational substance like alcohol. You will notice I said usualy; some folks (not many) HAVE caused themselves to get cancer by over-use of cigs and other things.
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Drunk driving I think there should be..
An app for that..
It's called calling a cab..
Drunk driving and killing someone is premeditated murder. Â
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Note to self:Â If you ever decide to kill or maim someone, just make sure you're driving a car when you do it.
If she'd been putting her child first, she'd have been home with him at 2:30 in the morning, instead of out partying in a location rampant with drunk drivers.
She couldn't have known her choice would turn out this badly, but she still could have made a better one, and this never would have been a possibility.
 @starshadow Don't blame the victim, blame the perp.  The perp drank and KNOWINGLY got behind the wheel of a motor vehicle -- everyone, I mean EVERYONE knows that is against the law and inherently unsafe.  Save your sympathies for the victims of crime, not the perpetrators.
@ThePosterFormerlyKnownAsPhredE I agree 100%!
 @starshadow Thanks for judging her.. Nice to see we have people who never party.. Only thing is you are so boring I would want to stab myself with a pencil for kicks... Get a life !
@starshadow She did not make a bad choice, the drunk driver did. The victim is inocent, the driver is guilty. there is no grey area.
 @starshadow Or for that matter, what if she worked a swing shift and always had to come home at 2am? Is it still her fault that someone else committed a crime?
 @starshadow In all honesty, your  post is one that is just all about " Blaming the victim". This is the same type of strawman argument people use to state rape victims were at fault for being raped. In all honesty, I am a mother of a now five year old son, but there are times where I need to go out and have a good time, and yes, I'm out at 2 AM in the morning at times. Does this mean I am just asking to be hit by a drunk driver? On that note, what if she had been working at one of the bars supporting her son, and was just leaving at 2 AM? Would that change your statement. In all honesty, she took care of her son, needed a break and went out for some fun, and unfortunately someone else made a bad choice that has ruined - her- life. She did not make a bad decision, the drunk driver did. Place blame where it belongs, with the driver.Â
@Tsubaki @starshadow Anyone who is out partying instead of raising their child has made a bad decision already.Â
Claiming that she's "missing spending time with her child" NOW is ridiculous, when she wasn't putting her child first THEN.
I have absolutely NO sympathy for parents that put their selfish, shallow behavior before their child's needs - and when karma comes and bites them in the ass, well, don't be surprised.Â
If you CHOOSE to put yourself deliberately somewhere you shouldn't be, that IS your own damn fault. Go ahead - go to a war zone, wander into the middle of it, and then whine when you get shot. Damn straight I'm gonna tell you you're an idiot that deserved it!
When yap about "victim blaming" is instead a refusal to acknowledge responsibility for one's own actions - like so many young adults have been taught today - that catchphrase has outlived its usefulness.
It's bewildering this place we live in. How immense a tragedy can be.
No winners in this one. You would think that just the thought and memories of what this man has done would be punishment enough, I'd have trouble living with it. I have to agree with the dad on this one, he does not deserve to go home to his family until after his sentence is completed. Best of luck to the Butner's, here's to Brandi's continued recovery.
Our society condones drunk driving. Until that changes it will be business as usual for drunks.
@2012 Hope and Change how do you figure?
This is where the justice system really fails the victims of crimes. Why is it that a person charged with a crime has more rights than a victim?Â
It is just horrible for those victims' families to deal with.Â
It's sad but the reality is that the government is out of money and can't afford to keep folks in jail. it's not about jail space as there is plenty of that, it's about staffing the jails.
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The county says that there is overcrowding but in reality there isn't any overcrowding. The issue is that the jails they can afford to keep open with staff are overcrowded.
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http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/index.ssf/2012/12/multnomah_county_jails_report.html
http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/index.ssf/2010/02/state_of_oregon_decides_agains.html
@RalphCramden  Wapato is reserved for the revolution
 @BertÂ
There isn't enough room....8-}
I still think they should be able to charge a DUI driver with Vehicular Homicide when they kill someone... Â They might not have "specifically intended" to kill anyone, but they made the choices to (a) drink (or get high) and then (b) drive... that sounds like "intent" to me...
@margay1 I'm not the Mult Co DA, but I suspect that he's proceeding on the idea of only charging what he believes he can either convict on, or elicit a plea from. Mr Warstler has been charged with driving under the influence of intoxicants( ORS813.010 C Felony), reckless driving(ORS811.140 A misd), second-degree manslaughter(ORS163.125 B felony), third-degree assault (ORS163.165 C Felony) and second-degree criminal mischief (ORS164.354 A misd). Warstler has also been charged with eight counts of recklessly endangering another person (ORS163.195 A misd) and six counts of fourth-degree assault (ORS 163.160 A misd).
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Specific to what you are commenting on, Assault 3 is about as close to 'vehicular homicide' as his charges get. While I do understand your frustration with regards to the key being intent, Assault 3 is not by any means a 'slap on the wrist', nor is the Manslaughter 2 charge. Personally, I applaud the Mult Co DA for his stack of charges. Hopefully, this irresponsible man will spend a decade or so in the care and custody of the state corrections department.Â
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@MarkKpic @margay1 While keeping him in jail until his trial is an option of the court, release criteria in this case appears to indicate that he could be eligible for some form of release from custody until trial. This is basically because even he would have a right to a speedy trial, But the courts are backed up, and trial could be months away. And with all the criminal charges lodged against him, it will take awhile for the prosecution to get it's case together anyway. I remember there were many cases when the individual I arrested and took to jail would be booked and released before I even got back to the office to begin the incident and arrest reports. One can only hope that in this case, Mr Warstler will be kept on a tight leash should he be released on recog or with some sort of Security Release amount posted to insure his future court appearances, and further compliance with court orders and that he doesn't violate his release conditions.Â
@MarkKpic @margay1 Thank you, MarkKpic! It is always difficult to separate personal emotion from the vocation of law enforcement. One cannot take whatever a suspect has committed as a personal attack against sensibility. This detached view is hard for normal citizens to understand. But law enforcement is just that, enforcing the law. Justice is blind! And law enforcement thankfully cannot be judge, jury and executioner. Investigate to the best of your ability, assign the crime to someone based on probable cause, arrest the person, and then stand back to let the rest of the Criminal Justice system take over. The end result may not satisfy everyone, especially the victim or society in general, but law enforcement can never change what has happened to a victim or family; we can only hold suspects accountable to a jury of peers. Â
 @jpk  @MarkKpic  @margay1 I've read enough of your posts to believe that you are truly what you claim to be. My thanks for your service to the community, jpk. Something that our LEO's don't hear nearly enough.Â
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Our judicial system is pulled taught between the cost and the number of people currently being processed through, or committed to,  it. There's also the idea that a person should be given due process, and not only seen for the stupidest and worst thing they've ever done. Mr Warstler did something very, very stupid. But, it's something that hundreds (if not thousands) of other people do every night of any given weekend. The difference is that Mr Warstler killed one person, and greviously injured another as a direct result of his actions. While it makes for good press, and offers some cathartic outlet for some people to present him as a pariah, the reality is that he is simply the next statistic in a long line of drunk drivers who've killed someone.Â
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I'm comfortable letting the judicial process take it's path, and I'm confident that his actions and choices will be revisited upon him in time.... And, yes, in all honesty it is entirely possible that I would feel differently had it been my mother, wife or daughter who was killed.Â
Piece of crap punk needs his ass kicked to knock that smug grin off his face.