Former San Joaquin County Supervisor Victor Mow was formally charged last week with vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated as well as causing great bodily injury while driving under the influence – charges that came almost two months after he was arrested for an accident leaving a Christmas Party in Stockton at the end of November.
The charge of vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated without gross negligence, which is what Mow is being charged with by the District Attorney’s Office, carries a potential penalty of either 16-months, 2-years, or 4-years in state prison. That particular charge can also be tried as a misdemeanor with a maximum penalty of one year in the San Joaquin County Jail.
Mow was arrested on Nov. 28th for allegedly striking an 82-year-old man – Muhammad Ashraf Butt – in the crosswalk on Country Club Boulevard in Stockton after leaving a party at the Stockton Country Club. Responding officers tried to administer life-saving measures on the man when they found him facedown and unresponsive, but when medics arrived on the scene, they formally pronounced him deceased.
A portable alcohol screening device utilized by responding officers recorded a blood alcohol content of .10 – above California’s legal limit – but the blood sample that he provided almost four hours later showed a concentration of .076.
Spurred by social media backlash, the San Joaquin County District Attorney’s Office on Tuesday released a statement spelling out some of the elements that commonly leads to delays in such cases – where a variety of experts need to be consulted and witnesses need to be interviewed prior to the decision to file charges.
The San Joaquin County District Attorney’s Office had the chance to review the report submitted by an accident reconstruction specialist before formally filing charges against Mow – who is currently a Port Commissioner for the Port of Stockton.
A former Stockton vice mayor, Mow served on the Board of Supervisors for eight years, including two as chairman, before he was appointed to the Port Commission in 2010. While he represented Stockton both on the city council and the county board, Mow was instrumental in throwing up a roadblock for the South San Joaquin Irrigation District in 2006 when the agency was applying to the Local Agency Formation Commission for its approval to enter the retail power business. As a member of the LAFCo commission at the time, Mow cast one of the dissenting votes that prevented SSJID from advancing in its pursuit for another eight years. The commission eventually granted its approval in 2014 – six years after Mow left the board due to term limits.
According to media reports, Butt – a Pakistani immigrant – was going home after prayer with the aid of a walker when he was struck by the vehicle that Mow was allegedly driving.
According to biography on the Stockton Port Commission’s website, Mow is a United States Army veteran that served in Vietnam, and eventually went on earn degrees from the University of the Pacific and California State University, Stanislaus. He served for two terms on both the Stockton City Council and the San Joaquin County Board of Supervisors
To contact reporter Jason Campbell email jcampbell@mantecabulletin.com or call 209.249.3544.
