Drunk Driver May Have Lied In Court To Get 10-Day Sentence, Witnesses Say

CHICAGO, IL — A Park Ridge man who killed a Chicago cyclist exaggerated or falsified his account of his efforts to aid his victim after fatally striking him with a car while driving nearly twice the speed limit with nearly twice the legal limit of alcohol in his system, witnesses told the Chicago Reader.

Ryne San Hamel, 32, pleaded guilty to charges of reckless homicide and aggravated drunk driving after killing Bobby Cann in 2013. While convictions for those charges can carry up to 14 years in prison, San Hamel was sentenced to only ten days in jail, along with probation and a financial penalty.

After reading news reports of San Hamel's tearful and remorseful plea for leniency from Cook County judge William Hook, multiple bystanders came forward to dispute his version of events. One described San Hamel's version of events as "either a fabrication or his imagination," the Reader reported.

The victim's family said it intends to file a civil wrongful death lawsuit, and even though San Hamel was not technically under oath when he made the allegedly false statements in court, the family's lawyer said it was "certainly troubling" if he was not telling the truth, according to the Reader.