Former State Trooper Guilty in Drunken, Off-Duty Collision With Motorcyclist

A former 27-year veteran of the Arizona Department of Public Safety has been found guilty of aggravated assault following a drunken collision with a motorcyclist who lost his leg. George Aguilera faces five to 15 years following today's jury decision, says the Maricopa County Attorney's Office. Click here for the office's PDF...

By Ray Stern

February 24, 2009

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A former 27-year veteran of the Arizona Department of Public Safety has been found guilty of aggravated assault following a drunken collision with a motorcyclist who lost his leg.

George Aguilera faces five to 15 years following today's jury decision, says the Maricopa County Attorney's Office. Click here for the office's PDF news release. The disgraced state trooper had been drinking off-duty on May 3, 2007 before slamming into the back of a motorcyle on Interstate 17.

Mark Streech, (seen at right in an image uploaded -- apparently by a family member -- on an Internet forum for motorcyclists), was left seriously messed up and later lost one of his legs.

The collision shows how dangerous riding a motorcycle can be -- especially with careless, impaired drivers in the traffic mix: Judging from the pictures of the crash from various news reports, it looks like the victim might have suffered nothing more serious than whiplash had Aguilera rear-ended the typical Valley SUV.

Drunk or not, motorists need to do a better job watching out for two-wheelers.

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Ray Stern is the former news editor of Phoenix New Times. He worked as a newspaper reporter in Arizona for more than two decades. He's won numerous awards for his reporting, including the Arizona Press Club's Don Bolles Award for Investigative Journalism.