MIAMI (WSVN) - Months after the death of an 11-year-old boy, the family came face-to-face with the driver in court and told the judge they want her off the streets.
It was an emotional day in court, Wednesday.
“I look, I see the car, and then, the next second, I see Anthony was flying through the air,” said Tatiana Reznik, the victim’s sister.
The family of Anthony Reznik, who died after being hit by a car while crossing the street in Sunny Isles Beach last year, shared the impact this has had on them.
“Samentha Toussaint must be held responsible for her horrible actions. Please,” said Inna Trakhtenburg, the victim’s mother.
“Samentha did not stop, she didn’t try to stop,” said Tatiana. “She didn’t see him. She drove very far until she stopped.”
Samentha Toussaint was cited to include failing to stop at a steady red light.
“This is not a criminal case,” said Toussaint’s attorney.
In court, Toussaint accepted the responsibility of what she had done and changed her plea to guilty.
“The only issue here is that this is a civil traffic infraction, that due to it’s a fatality it has to go before a court and has to have the prosecution,” said Toussaint’s attorney. “I don’t want to turn this into an adversarial sentencing.”
“For the first time, almost two years later, admitted that she caused the crash and that she killed Anthony,” said Judd Rosen, family attorney.
Reznik’s family told 7News they do not have ill will toward the driver but are pushing for her license to be suspended for 10 years to life.
“I truly hope that the judge will be willing to punish Samantha with more than six months of driving license suspended,” said Trakhtenburg.
“Unless there’s specificity, I don’t see how you can speculate or interpret or be creative in a restrictive penalty,” said Toussaint’s attorney.
The judge is set to make her ruling in two weeks.
“Our only chance of some responsibility is this court putting some sort of penalty against the driver. I mean we’re talking about a license suspension when a child’s life is lost. Those two don’t equate,” said Rosen.
“The next step is for us to make an example of things like this,” said Vitaly Reznik, brother. “To make sure we set a precedent if someone is driving recklessly and kills somebody, we need to set an example, and we need to punish them, at least to get them off the road.”
The family’s work doesn’t stop here, as they are taking their fight to create changes all the way up to Tallahassee.
They’re working on the Anthony Reznik Act, which seeks stricter punishments in cases like this.
“It allows prosecutors, in a case like this, to do what needs to be done, which is have criminal charges pressed when someone kills an innocent boy in such a horrific fashion,” said Rosen.
The next phase in the trail is the sentencing, which will happen on Sept. 21.
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