Criminal liability is a tricky concept, especially when you get into consequences of criminal activity that defendants swear they did not foresee, and that nobody in their situation could have foreseen. In People v. Acosta 232 Cal. App. 3d 1375 (1991), the defendant led police on a 48-mile high speed chase through Orange County. When police helicopters got involved, two of them collided in midair, and three people died. Acosta was charged with, and convicted of, three counts of second-degree murder, in part because the chase was both the actual (if not for it, the accident wouldn't have happened) and proximate (it was a substantial factor) cause of the helicopter crash.
Acosta's appeal centered on the issue of whether a mid-air helicopter crash was something that he could have foreseen when the day began. Injuries to pedestrians or other automobile drivers? Yes. Injuries to helicopter pilots? No. The court disagreed with him, and held that while this sort of thing had never happened before, it wasn't a "highly extraordinary" result. His appeal was denied.
Why am I telling you all this? Well, I don't remember seeing this on the evening news, but it sure reminds me of the movies. Might've been in the background of this scene or this one.
I think that I may have just found a way to enjoy Michael Bay and Jerry Bruckheimer's movies again. My idea of a practice exam for Crim and/or Torts: watch The Rock, Con Air, or Gone in Sixty Seconds, and note every act with possible criminal and civil liability.
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