Posted on Friday, 9th May 2008 by Bruce
Good. It’s nice to know that Mark M. Benson won’t be able to “sign the house over” and “sell his guns” for a little while at least. You’ll recall that those were the thoughts foremost in his mind as he spoke to his wife on the telephone from the Waukesha County criminal justice building, after taking three lives, two weeks ago today.
In a suit against Benson filed two days ago in a Waukesha County court, attorneys asked for the court order freezing Benson’s assets, out of fear that he would attempt to divest himself of anything of value.
It’s interesting to note that in that lawsuit, the Progressive Classic and Navigators Insurance companies are named as co-defendants. From the Journal/Sentinel:
“In addition to Benson, named as defendants in the suit are Progressive Classic Insurance Co. and Navigators Insurance Co., which according to the lawsuit, insured Benson’s vehicles.
Benson’s attorney in the criminal case, Dean A. Strang, said it is likely that one or both of the insurers will assign attorneys to handle the civil suit and a civil lawyer from Strang’s office also will be involved.”
Yet, in the days following the crash, the Journal/Sentinel reported that Benson had no auto insurance at the time of the crash. Hmmm.
For the record, Progressive is an insurer known for their willingness to take on a “higher risk” class of driver than many other insurance companies. My suspicion is that the vehicle was insured, but that Mr. Benson was most likely not listed as a driver on the policy. It will be interesting to see how that plays out.
Just another angle to ponder of Mark M. Benson’s lack of respect for anything other than his own selfishness, I guess.
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6 Responses to “Mark M. Benson’s assets frozen in Waukesha County courtroom”
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May 10th, 2008 at 1:40 am
Interesting, indeed. If he was not listed as a driver on the policy, and didn’t have a valid license at the time of the accident (which he didn’t), they could claim that he was in violation of the terms of the policy and get out of having to pay anything. But that’s just a possible.
May 11th, 2008 at 7:58 am
One of the things I find somewhat troubling about this incident is the immediate backlash from the media and the population regarding drunk driving.
As it turns out, Benson wasn’t drunk at all.. he was hopped up on pills.
May 11th, 2008 at 8:30 am
True, corbin, but just two days before he took three lives, he had been convicted of third-time drunk driving.
The outrage felt by many, prompting calls for swift action, including an editorial in today’s Journal/Sentinel which opines that Kleefisch and Doyle’s proposals don’t go far enough, I believe is driven by people’s shock that following his third OWI, he would not be immediately taken into custody to begin his 75 day prison sentence.
In this case, upon issuing Benson his third OWI conviction, the judge gave Benson time to “get his affairs in order“. He hardly did that.
In addition, this system which places the onus on the offender not to operate a vehicle, after being judicially or administratively ordered not to do so, is critically flawed. Hardly a day goes by in this state without a news story of someone driving after revocation, often multiple times, causing damage to property, or worse.
The “backlash” as you describe are citizens and media alike reaching the long-overdue conclusion that this system isn’t working.
June 8th, 2008 at 7:05 pm
Now Benson is trying to claim he has no guns. What a liar.
July 27th, 2008 at 8:21 pm
mabye someone should check in to not only where the guns have gone, (who was in the house?–maybe old BATF files to see what he used to have, anyway–) but whether he’s been doing sny . . .thing. . . with his kids education funding plans. IMHO the IRS does not like messing with those either. . .
hey the IRS problems worked for the Untouchables when nothing else did !
July 27th, 2008 at 8:22 pm
sorry about mishaps on last post–I expected a spellcheck!