‘Killed by my recklessness’

Bill Gang

Sunday, Sept. 19, 1999 | 1:24 a.m.

William Rouw gets up every morning and slips on a slender silver bracelet that's inscribed with "In memory of Theresa Schroeder, killed 1-1-98 by my recklessness."

Rouw said he doesn't particularly like the "killer" wording on the bracelet he is required to wear as part of his five-year probation for a drunken and reckless driving collision that killed Schroeder, an 18-year-old Cheyenne High School student.

But he discovered that he has a personal need to wear it.

"It is so visible that it is a constant reminder," he said last week. "There are times when I look at it and just think about what happened. I get remorseful and sorry and sad, but I'm also grateful that this has dramatically turned my life around."

Rouw is one of three traffic fatality offenders to be given a bracelet since July as part of a new program initiated by the Clark County District Attorney's Office.

Deputy District Attorney Gary Booker said offenders need to remember their innocent victims -- the names, the faces and the unfulfilled lives.

"The intent is to make people think about what they have done," Booker said. "It gives a name to an anonymous act."

Rouw, 32, had a blood alcohol level that was nearly twice the minimum necessary to prove drunken driving when his vehicle collided with a car driven by Schroeder.

Although he had the right of way and Schroeder pulled into his path at a North Las Vegas intersection, his excessive speed and drinking made him legally responsible.

Even before his plea bargain, Rouw spent a year in the county's Serious Offender Program attending numerous counseling sessions and working to pay restitution to Schroeder's family.

District Judge Jack Lehman commented at the construction worker's sentencing hearing this summer, "I've never seen a transformation like Mr. Rouw has made."

Rouw said the bracelet may have played a significant role in his rehabilitation, and he isn't ready to take it off, even if that were an option.

He said there are many facets to the court's intervention programs, and "I don't know what helps me stay on the straight and narrow."

The other two men wearing the bracelets are Paul Auzenne, 36, a former Henderson building inspector and 32-year-old Jeffrey Roussin. They were drag racing on a residential street in Henderson when a car driven by 43-year-old Mary Lou Young pulled into their path.

The two men's excessive speed, as they raced to a steak house after playing a round of golf, prevented them from avoiding the collision that killed Young and her 10-year-old son, James Young Jr.

Auzenne and Roussin pleaded guilty in plea bargains that resulted in probation with the requirement that they wear the bracelets inscribed with "In memory of Mary Lou Young and James Young Jr, killed 8-11-98 by my recklessness."

But some critics question the propriety of the bracelets.

"Is this the Scarlet Letter of the 90s?" asked defense attorney Robert Langford. "Are we going to go back to stocks as well? This almost seems a little childish. Why not just have them write 'I will not kill people while driving drunk' a thousand times?"

While defense attorney Chip Siegel said he applauds the "spirit" of the bracelet program, he wonders what it will lead to next.

"Do we do it for employee theft cases? Do we make them wear bracelets saying 'I stole from my former employer.'

"We need to be careful when we mark people," Siegel said. "I don't like branding people."

He noted that the bracelets aren't the only punishment in the auto fatality cases, but an extra step that is not handed out in other types of cases.

Punishments that are designed to result in public scorn or mockery have long been considered by the courts to be "cruel and unusual" punishment.

"This is not intended to be a 'Scarlet Letter'," Booker said, although he admitted he does not think it would be bad if people questioned the defendants about their bracelets and the men had to explain what they had done.

He noted that all of the defendants accepted the bracelets as part of probation and that a cruel and unusual punishment for them would be being sent to prison instead.

Rouw said he has had only one person ask him about his bracelet, and he doesn't mind talking about it.

Langford said that because the bracelets are part of plea bargains, he isn't as offended about them as he would be if they were court-ordered punishment.

He conceded that despite his views on the bracelets, he likely would recommend that a client accept the bracelet as part of a deal to avoid a prison term.

"But I'd also advise a client to stand in the street and wave a rubber chicken over his head if that's what it took to avoid jail," he said.

Booker emphasized that the purpose of the bracelet is to keep the offender thinking about the consequences of his choices and hopefully not repeat their mistakes.

"One of the biggest things that grinds the victims' families is that the defendants don't give a damn," Booker said.

"If you kill someone you don't know, it can be emotionally insignificant," the veteran prosecutor said. "This is putting a name and a face on an otherwise anonymous crime. This reminds then that it was a person they killed."

Booker, who heads the district attorney's DUI team, came up with the idea for the memorial bracelets. He modeled them after the Vietnan War POW-MIA bracelets of the 1970s that many, including Booker, wore to humanize those who were prisoners or missing in action.

The original memorial bracelets in DUI death cases were for the friends and families of the victims and stated, "In loving memory of ... Killed by a DUI driver," Booker said.

"I took the idea up a notch to include the defendants," Booker said.

So far, only three bracelets have been handed out because most of the death cases the district attorney's office deals with involve felony drunken driving charges that mandate the defendants go to prison, Booker said.

But in cases where circumstances warrant plea bargains to reckless driving or some other charge that results in probation, the bracelets will be required.

So what's to keep one of these people from simply slipping off the bracelet when no one in authority is around?

Booker admits that would be easy, but the big picture is a lot more complex.

He noted that probation in such cases always requires intensive supervision and multiple counseling programs on almost a daily basis and everyone looks to see if the bracelets are being worn.

Even if the defendants remove the bracelets and stick them in a pocket when not being watched, they still have to think about the bracelet every day, Booker said.

And that still accomplishes his goal of reminding them of what they had done.

While Booker knows of no other agencies currently using similar bracelets, there has been interest from as far away as Great Britain.

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