In What Universe Is This Not A Police Cover-Up?
An Odessa state representative is facing DUI and vehicular assault charges after Delaware State Police say he drove while intoxicated and caused a crash, injuring another driver.
Delaware state House Rep. Kevin Hensley, who recently won reelection to his 9th District seat in November, will be arraigned Tuesday in Kent County Court of Common Pleas on misdemeanor DUI and second-degree vehicular assault, according to court records.
Hensley is also accused of failing to yield the right-of-way and driving with expired insurance.
State police said Hensley was pulling out of a Valero gas station on Route 1 south when he hit another vehicle, causing it to roll multiple times.
Hensley told police he didn’t see the car, but when authorities did a sobriety test, the state representative clocked a blood alcohol level nearly twice the legal limit of 0.08%, according to an affidavit from Camden state troopers.
By the grace of God he didn’t kill someone. Driving at twice the legal blood alcohol limit and without insurance.
And the State Police hid this story from the public. Which IS the story. Unequal justice, unequally applied. Only reason we know is b/c Hensley’s name popped up on the court docket for next week.
Here, though, is how Speaker Melissa Minor-Brown can mete out at least a measure of justice: Immediately remove Kevin Hensley from the Appropriations/Joint Finance Committee. He gets a windfall for serving on JFC. Now that he’s indicated where he spends a lot of that money, it would be a public service for him to have less money to spend on it.
Clearly a coverup, and probably wouldn’t have been charged with anything if he didn’t crash into and injure another driver.
I don’t know how these things work, but I’m a little surprised Hensley didn’t come out with a “mistakes were made” bullshitty statement at the time. Did he think a coverup would work, or were they working with the other driver to maybe come up with some other outcome?
Complete cover up. And no one will do anything about it.
Mimi is just another Delaware way person.
Kevin will have another “coffee” talk (with some whiskey) but he will def have a tough fight on his hands in 26
Darius Brown was suspended from some committee assignments while his legal issues were adjudicated.
Here we have someone who was driving a lethal weapon while impaired, and caused what could have been a fatal crash.
I’d be surprised and disappointed if the Speaker took no action. Taking him off JFC seems like the right thing to do, at the least.
Will he though? It’s a big deal now, but will voters care in 2 years, or at least enough to turn out? They should still care, but Monique Johns still got elected years later after stealing Hensley’s campaign literature. (Yes, DUI can threaten others’ lives and is a bigger deal, but still).
“Can”? Absolutelyfucking*does*.
Every person who drinks and drives should be locked up. Alcoholism is a disease. Getting behind the wheel of a car while drunk is a killing choice.
“Every person who drinks and drives should be locked up. ”
There aren’t enough jails in the world. There’s a reason we have an allowed BAC for driving.
Also worth suggesting that the incoming governor demand an investigation into DSP inaction in reporting on this incident.
Incoming not referring to BHL, of course.
To piggyback on his transparency agenda, let’s put police reports back into the public record.
When and why did that change?
Back in the ’80s or early ’90s when they codified, that is to say restricted, FOIA rules.
Any agency or government body that doesn’t want to be subject to oversight by definition needs oversight. If they’re not breaking the law they have nothing to hide, right?
Agree this should be treated as Sen. Brown was, at the least. But MOT residents may expose more of a pattern – a sad one at that – that warrants a more permanent exclusion.
Speculation–or informed speculation?
I have a question. The report says he was driving with expired insurance.
Was that an oversight, or was he driving w/o insurance b/c he couldn’t GET insurance?
In which case, why? Is there more to this story than we already know?
If I’m an editor, it’s certainly a question I’m asking a reporter to find out.
I’m frustrated because the local MOT Facebook group is strict about no politics… hopefully the news actually reaches voters.
Last I heard, DUI wasn’t a political activity in Delaware.
Well, over the years it’s been a bipartisan activity in Delaware.
Police in Delaware never release anything they don’t want released. Did we find out about Brad Bennett or John Atkins from the police in Delaware? Nope. In fact, the DSP never released the name of the person driving around a golf course in a Bronco trying to kill people. It’s ridiculous.
Talk about buried. That Bronco story will need heavy equipment to unearth at this point.
From the time that I started in the General Assembly, it was known that some of the legislators drove under the influence. Bruce Reynolds won his seat for good when his opponent got nailed for his third DUI.
Hey, you had fundraisers after almost every session day, and the lobbyists were only too happy to ply their marks with alcohol.
Thankfully, times have changed to an extent. But only to an extent.