Gilbert Mayor responds to his letter supporting drunk driver

 Click the play button on the video window to the right to see the story

The aunt of a teen killed in a drunk driving crash is now trying to discredit the Gilbert mayor for allegedly helping the man convicted of killing her nephew.

The mayor is also responding to the allegations. You can read his full reply below.

In May of 2007, 17-year-old Sean Andujar was killed at the intersection of Federal and Ray Road when a car driven by Raymond Kohan hit him.

Kohan had two prior DUIs and a blood alcohol level of .15 at the time of the crash, reports showed.

He was convicted of manslaughter and endangerment last month.

The victim’s mother, Joann McSorley, later obtained a letter from court records. It was on City of Gilbert letterhead from Mayor Steve Berman. Read the letter here.

The letter asked the judge to grant probation to Kohan with no prison sentence in the case. In the letter, Bernman said he had known Kohan for several years.

"This is my nephew and I urge everyone to discredit the Mayor of Gilbert for supporting the man who killed my nephew," Sean's aunt, Joyce, wrote while adding a comment here on ABC15.com.

She wrote in at the bottom of this story on Thursday after the first publishing.

"How dare he support a man who has prior convictions for DUI that this time ended up in a fatality. My nephew was stopped at a red light on his way to the last band concert of the school year, 17 years old, on a Sunday at 12:15 pm and through no fault of his own was t-boned by a drunk driver."

The teen's mother told ABC15, "How dare he back someone that he says so much against in terms of drunk driving?"

Kohan will be sentenced next month.

Press release from Steve Berman

August 22, 2008
 
Press release from Steve Berman
 
Within the past several weeks, I wrote a letter of support for Raymond Kohan. I have known Raymond and his family for several years and have always found the Kohans to be a wonderful, close-knit family. Before writing the letter, I checked public records and found no indication that Raymond had ever been cited previously for DUI. With almost all people who come before the courts, there are good and bad qualities. I wrote about the good qualities I found in Raymond Kohan. I never made any attempt to condone of excuse Raymond for what he did. I felt in light of Raymond's volunteer work with cancer patients, the he could better pay back society for his mistake as a probationary defendant rather than send him to prison.
 
DUIs have taken a terrible toll on too many families in our nation. I cannot even begin to understand the pain the McSorley family is going through and my heat goes out to them for the loss of such a young person. Nothing I said or did was meant to minimize the terrible loss to the McSorley family or to justify driving under the influence.
 
If I had to do it over again, I would have written the letter on personal letterhead rather than town stationary. This is the only time I have ever written a letter of this type. I wanted to court to see the positive side of Raymond Kohan. I have every confidence that the judge, after looking at both the positive and negative traits of Raymond Kohan, will impose a fair and appropriate sentence.