Probation sentence sparks outrage in fatal San Francisco crash case
Relatives of a family of four killed in a car crash in San Francisco are angry and disappointed by the sentence handed down to the driver on Friday afternoon.
San Francisco Superior Court Judge Bruce Chan sentenced 80-year-old Mary Fong Lau to two years of formal probation, 200 hours of community service, and revoked her license for three years. This comes after Lau pleaded no contest to four counts of vehicular manslaughter, one for each victim.
Family members of victims Diego Cardoso de Oliveira and his wife, Matilde Ramos Pinto, wanted guilty pleas instead of no contest pleas. They also asked Judge Chan to sentence Lau to at least one year of home detention.
But the judge said that, given Lau's age, her lack of a criminal record, and her remorse, the sentence was appropriate.
Investigators said Lau was not texting or talking on her phone. She was not under the influence of alcohol or drugs. There was no medical incident, and they said her car did not malfunction when it crashed. It is still unclear why Lau drove at speeds of up to 70 miles per hour in the West Portal residential neighborhood before crashing into a bus shelter, killing the entire family of four in March 2024. Cardoso de Oliveira was 40 years old, Ramos Pinto was 38, and their two young boys were 3 months old and 20 months old. They were on their way to the San Francisco Zoo.
The victims' family members said in court during their victim impact statements that they feel invisible, unseen, unheard, and disrespected by what they considered to be a light sentence handed down by Judge Chan. San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins agreed, saying there was no justice and accountability for wiping out an entire family.
"Each and every day, we have judges who decide that they don't want to trust the process in and of itself, that they'd rather take justice into their own hands and determine what that looks like. And in this case, that is not what this family is receiving due to this open plea to the court. And so, at this point, our hands are tied," said Jenkins outside of the hearing.
The defense attorney believed the two-year probation sentence to be fair, saying the defendant will live the rest of her life with remorse and that Lau became a "broken person" knowing she killed an entire family.
"This was a difficult case because we have a huge amount of loss and we have a woman who has been a model citizen, who's 80 years old, who has lived in San Francisco, whose own husband was tragically killed in an automobile collision when she was 25 years old. She has represented the best of San Francisco for her whole life," said defense attorney Seth Morris.
Lau at one point in the hearing stood up and apologized directly to the victims' family members and friends. "I want to say I am sorry to your family. Sorry, sorry."
But many people feel Lau got off easy by serving no jail time and only being put on probation for killing four people.
The victims' families have filed a civil suit against Lau.