Lengthy driving rap sheet for alleged hit-and-run Taunton driver frustrates family, friends of dead teen

As far as Tanya Thomas-Bacon is concerned, the man who fled the scene after running down her nephew last week had a license to kill, courtesy of state law.

“I know someone who was stopped for OUI (drunken driving) twice and had his license permanently taken away. So how does this individual keep getting his license back?” she asked.

Thomas-Bacon, along with some friends and relatives, was relaxing in the backyard of her Baker Road West family house on Wednesday, the same house where 17-year-old Nicholas Silva-Thomas previously lived with his brother Joshua and his mother Melissa Thomas.

Police allege Silva-Thomas was killed last Thursday night near Watson Pond State Park by 55-year-old Paul Baran, after the Whittenton man hit him with his car while the teen was in the middle of Bay Street on a skateboard.

When Baran pleaded not guilty at his arrangement Monday in Taunton District Court â€" on the charge of leaving the scene of an accident with death resulting â€" the assistant district attorney noted the defendant’s lengthy rap sheet dating back 17 years, and the fact that nearly all the charges were vehicular-related.

“It’s one of the worst I’ve seen,” said ADA Dan Walsh, who asked for and was granted that bail be set at $100,000 for Baran, who could be seen smirking as soon as the judge issued his ruling.

The CORI (Criminal Offender Record Information) report to which Walsh referred indicated more than 30 misdemeanor charges â€" ranging from speeding, driving under the influence and leaving the scene of an accident resulting in property damage â€" as well as a score of hearings, some involving Baran’s status as a habitual traffic offender.

This week also marked the 16th occasion since 1989 that the state’s Registry of Motor Vehicles either revoked or suspended Baran’s driver’s license, according to Adam Hurtubise, spokesman for Massachusetts Department of Transportation.

Hurtubise says the RMV ordered the “immediate threat revocation” of Baran’s driver’s license at the behest of Taunton police, who described him as “an immediate threat to public safety,” in the event that Baran posts bail and is released.

Hurtubise also shed light as to why Thomas-Bacon and others are so frustrated with Bay State driving laws, specifically as they pertain to habitual offenders who eventually cause the death of another driver, passenger or pedestrian. 

Current state law, he said, only mandates lifetime revocation of one’s driver’s license for a subsequent conviction for motor-vehicle homicide; a conviction for drunken driving homicide with a prior OUI conviction; a fifth OUI conviction; or refusing to take a chemical test after three OUI convictions.

Thomas-Bacon says Baran’s previous infractions, even though they didn’t meet the legal threshold for lifetime revocation of his driver’s license, should have been enough for authorities to keep him from getting behind the wheel.
And she said it makes absolutely no difference that nearly all of his prior revocations and suspensions didn’t involve alcohol.

“An accident is an accident, what’s the difference if you’re drunk or sober? A car is still a weapon,” she said.

When informed there’s a move afoot by some legislators to enact tougher laws for habitual motor vehicle offenders, Bacon-Thomas said it’s about time.

“If we have to sign a petition then let’s get it started,” she said.

A Taunton cop weighs in

The maximum sentence in the state for anyone convicted of leaving the scene of an accident resulting in a death is either 2 1/2 to 10 years in state prison or one to 2 1/2 years in jail.

TPD Lt. Paul Roderick â€" who has investigated numerous serious accidents in his role as a certified crash reconstructionist â€" has long maintained that state laws covering vehicular incidents, wherein an individual is killed as a result of negligent driving, are obsolete and in dire need of revision.

“It doesn’t sound like the commonwealth cares very much about someone’s life,” Roderick said, referring to a case like Baran’s, where the minimum mandatory sentence is just one year.

Roderick pointed to three cases, during the past three years, where defendants received lenient sentences after being convicted either of vehicular homicide or leaving the scene of a deadly crash.

In 2009, Edward Leonard of Taunton was sentenced to serve an 18-month jail sentence after being found guilty of misdemeanor homicide by negligence in the death of Jennifer Walker, 25, in 2007.

Charges that Leonard was legally drunk were dismissed. Police alleged that a friend drove him away from the crash scene, and that he waited until the next day when he knew the alcohol was out of his system to turn himself in.
“If you’re drunk and stay at the scene you’re looking at some serious state time. But if you leave and turn yourself in the next day it’s a misdemeanor. Where’s the balance?” Roderick said.

In 2008, Craig Bigos was sentenced to 2 1/2 years in jail after pleading guilty to striking and killing 13-year-old Earmon Machado, who had been walking at night on Poole Street.

Bigos fled the scene and later claimed that he had been texting on his cell phone.

And in 2009, Derek Demoura of Dighton got just 90 days in the house of correction after pleading guilty to an accident in 2007 that killed 67-year-old Shirley Woodward.

“As long as there’s a liberal judge you never do any time,” Roderick said of the latter case.

A promising future not realized

Baran’s rap sheet also includes prior drug charges for possession with intent to distribute heroin and marijuana, as well as shoplifting and receiving stolen property.

One drug case was dismissed when a judge ruled that a state trooper conducted an illegal search. Two other drug arrests resulted in probation but no jail time when Baran’s lawyer challenged Taunton police for conducting unlawful searches of his apartment.

Baran’s problems with the law escalated as he reached middle age. A municipal worker, who asked to remain anonymous, says that Baran was something of a football star when he was a student at Coyle-Cassidy High School.

Tom Pileski, current athletic director and head football coach, confirmed that he’d been told as such.

The source, however, says Baran got heavily involved in drugs and alcohol, particularly after a high school friend and former jock died.

“He had the world by the (horns) but the drugs and booze just sucked the life out of him,” the source said.

Memory kept alive

Nicholas Silva Thomas’s memory will live on, according to Teri Michon.

Michon, who with her sons, Kevan, 18, and Sean, 21, own and operate Headway Skate Shop in Falmouth, will be staging a “skate jam” benefit on Aug. 20 at Falmouth Skatepark to raise money to establish a Nicholas Silva-Thomas scholarship.

The event, she said, will feature Jake Phelps, editor of Thrasher magazine, and internationally recognized skateboarder Anthony Shetler.

“We’ve got a big skateboard community down here,” said Michon, 49.
She said when she read the news of the death of the Taunton teen it had a personal impact.

 “It was like losing one of my own kids,” Michon said.