The limo driver who ran over an East High School student was ordered Tuesday to spend time helping quadriplegics and paraplegics.
Denver County Judge Mary Celeste ordered Stanley Sample to serve 150 hours of community service at the Veterans Administration Hospital. The student, Molly Bloom, lost her left leg in the incident.
As Bloom watched from her wheelchair, Sample, 38, pleaded guilty to careless driving resulting in serious bodily injury.
Celeste placed Sample on six months of unsupervised probation. Sample wasn’t fined or ordered to pay restitution but must pay court costs.
Bloom told Celeste that the plea agreement hammered out between prosecutors and Sample was fine.
“I want to say I think it is fair, and the community service is a good idea,” she said.
Sample didn’t say anything. But Harvey Steinberg, Sample’s lawyer, told Celeste that he and Sample didn’t feel anything would be resolved by going through an “acrimonious trial.”
Steinberg said Sample accepts full responsibility for what happened and that “our hearts go out to them (the Bloom family).”
On May 13, Bloom was among a group of prom-night friends boarding a stretch Hummer limousine when Sample began driving. Bloom was dragged under the limo’s rear tire for 38 feet before Sample stopped.
After the hearing, Bloom slipped out a courtroom back door. She has declined requests for interviews, said her lawyer, Stephen Wahlberg.
“Molly is a very private person (from) a very private family,” he said.
Wahlberg said Bloom agreed to the plea agreement because she wants to get on with her life and not subject herself and others to a trial.
Because Sample wanted to plead guilty to the original charge, Bloom jumped at the chance to accept the deal, Wahlberg said.
“In light of the totality of the circumstances, she wants to get on with her life. She has been accepted at college and she is working towards that,” Wahlberg said. “It is Molly’s intent to put this behind her.”
Bloom is undergoing physical therapy and is attending the University of Colorado at Denver.
Bloom hopes to settle with the limo service that employed Sample, Wahlberg said.
“There have been a lot of medical expenses in the past, there are a lot of medical expenses in the future and there are a lot of long-term health-insurance issues,” Wahlberg said. “You want to make sure that Molly’s medical conditions, whatever they may be, can be addressed.”
Staff writer Howard Pankratz can be reached at 303-954-1939 or hpankratz@denverpost.com.
