Prosecutors suggest charges for other driver in the Bryant Wilkerson case

Wilkerson spent three months in the Maricopa County Jail after the accident, desperately trying to raise money for bail. And even after his release, he's been saddled with onerous release terms: both an ankle bracelet and house arrest, which kept him in his apartment for all but a few hours every day, outside of work. Wilkerson has two adopted daughters in middle school; just to attend their band concerts, he says, he was forced to get the court's permission.

House arrest became even more of an issue when Wilkerson was promoted at work. After he was arrested, Wilkerson was fired from his job at the U.S. Postal Service. (They said he'd failed to get his absence excused — which is kind of hard to do when you're stuck in jail.) But he was hired at a Fountain Hills gas station, and they liked his work enough to make him assistant manager. That meant every time Wilkerson had to come in to cover for another employee, or handle a crisis, he had to get the court's permission.

In the latest court hearing April 18, Wilkerson's attorney, Michelle Carson, argued that it was high time to lift the house arrest and take the ankle bracelet off, too. She argued that there's a very good chance that Wilkerson will never be convicted of the most serious charges.

"To continue to hold him on extremely restrictive release conditions, in light of so much evidence that he's not the guilty party in this case, is extremely unnecessary," Carson told the judge.

As Carson noted, Wilkerson has passed 23 urine tests. He's complied with every restriction outlined by the court.

The prosecutor argued that there was no new evidence in the case. But Judge Sanders, citing Wilkerson's record of compliance, disagreed.

"He's had no violations since he was released in 2007," she noted. "He's been consistently [drug] testing and has tested negatively every time in the past year. He has no prior criminal history — that's why I'm modifying his terms to this extent."

It was a really big victory for the defense. It's also, I think, a good indication that Wilkerson's attorney may be right.

The case is complicated. But, as Carson says, there's not a lot of evidence that Wilkerson is, in fact, the guilty party.

Surely the underage drinking played a role in the other driver's actions. And I think it's also clear from Yavapai County's decision that this one is messy. Accidents happen!

The county attorney shouldn't waste another dime on this case. (Because Wilkerson's lawyer is a public defender, every dime wasted by the prosecutors is multiplied by two. The taxpayers are on the hook for both prosecution and defense.)

Instead, the prosecutors should let Wilkerson plead guilty to one charge of leaving the scene and drop the rest of the charges immediately.

He's done three months in jail. He spent nine months after that on house arrest. No one can say he hasn't suffered. When I talked to him about the case recently, he made a point of talking about just how devastated he was by Felicia Edwards' death — and mentioned that he got his current job because it's across the street from his apartment complex and he can walk there. "You can be doing everything legal and driving perfectly and still be involved in an accident," he said. "I'm still very timid about driving."

You can bet this guy is not going to attempt another U-turn any time soon, much less smoke a joint. Lesson learned.

Beyond that, prosecutors have a duty not to press charges unless they think they have a "reasonable likelihood of conviction." That's simply no longer the case here.

The taxpayers of Arizona shouldn't have to finance a trial just to prove it.