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In California, you can kill someone with your car and not even have a point on your license.

That’s because of a criminal justice reform law passed in 2020, allowing judges to effectively erase a misdemeanor case from existence. It shields people accused of “low-level” crimes from the stigma of having a conviction on their record, something that can limit work and housing opportunities.

But an ongoing CalMatters investigation found that the new misdemeanor diversion program has also had an unintended consequence: It allows some people charged with vehicular manslaughter to keep the case off of their driving record.

That means you could face more penalties for a speeding ticket than for running someone over.

Vehicular Manslaughter Can Disappear From Your Record

Allison Lyman first heard about misdemeanor diversion from a Sacramento County prosecutor. In April, her 23-year-old son, Connor Lopez, was riding his motorcycle in Elk Grove when an oncoming car made a left turn and collided with him.

Lopez, a piano teacher, died in the roadway. The district attorney’s office charged the driver, Harjit Kaur, with misdemeanor vehicular manslaughter — alleging that her failure to yield to oncoming traffic caused the fatal crash, court records show.

Then the prosecutor told Lyman to brace herself: The case could be wiped off Kaur’s record and sealed from view if Kaur asks for diversion and a judge grants it.

“I’m 43 and I will have to live the rest of my life without my son. But there’ll be no record of it for her?” Lyman said.

It’s part of a larger anger and frustration Lyman has at how the system is treating her son’s death. She said she was talking to police and one of the officers kept referring to the case as “low-level.”

“She took my son’s life, but that’s how they’re seen — low-level,” Lyman said.

Diversion programs have been around for decades nationwide. They essentially let a judge pause a case and order a defendant to meet certain requirements over a specified period of time — like going to rehab and doing community service. If the defendant successfully completes the terms, their case is dismissed. Some diversion programs focus on certain types of criminal defendants, such as military veterans or people with mental health issues. A prosecutor often had to agree to diversion.

But the 2020 law lets judges in California order diversion for almost all misdemeanors, with few, if any, requirements that defendants have to fulfill, and over the objection of a prosecutor. Five years later, court records show defense attorneys are routinely requesting diversion not just for offenses such as shoplifting and drug possession but also for cases in which someone died.

Rochelle Beardsley, assistant chief deputy district attorney in Sacramento County, said that’s like telling a victim’s family that their loved one’s life meant nothing.

“That’s unfair to folks that have suffered greatly already,” she said.

Related Story: 40,000 People Died on California Roads. State Leaders Looked Away

How Vehicular Manslaughter Drivers Keep Their Licenses

CalMatters identified about three dozen drivers who have avoided a vehicular manslaughter conviction through the misdemeanor diversion law.

The actual number could be much higher because such cases are often sealed and scrubbed from searchable databases at county courthouses. CalMatters was able to identify instances in which diversion was granted by visiting courthouses around the state. In some cases, the files weren’t sealed because the defendant hadn’t yet completed the terms of the diversion program and the case was still active. Other times, we found cases where diversion was successfully completed but the records were still visible in court databases.

Vehicular manslaughter can be charged as a misdemeanor or felony, depending on the circumstances. Prosecutors typically charge a misdemeanor if the driver wasn’t intoxicated or driving in an extremely dangerous manner – like excessive speeding.

In court, prosecutors and victims’ families often make emotional pleas for justice in arguing against letting the drivers off. Sometimes the judges listen and deny diversion. When they don’t, there’s a clear practical impact: The defendant keeps a clean driving record. That’s because diversion isn’t considered a conviction, and only violations for which a motorist is convicted are listed on a person’s DMV record.

That means the law isn’t just allowing the defendants to escape criminal penalties. It can allow them to avoid DMV punishments, too. Manslaughter typically counts as two points on a driver’s record and can lead to higher insurance premiums, traffic school and even a license suspension if the driver racks up additional points for things such as speeding or running a red light.

Of the three dozen drivers we identified who were granted diversion, there’s no indication of the manslaughter case on any of their driving records. (Some of the records do show the driver was in a collision. But the DMV records the agency released don’t reveal who was at fault or the crash’s severity.) Most currently have a valid license. Nearly a third of the drivers have gotten a traffic ticket or been involved in another collision after having been involved in a fatal crash, their DMV records show.

That includes a young man in Los Angeles who fell asleep at the wheel and ran over a bicyclist. He got a red-light ticket just a few months after the judge granted diversion and a speeding ticket this summer, shortly after his case was dismissed. In Alameda County, a driver who was in a fatal 2022 crash that killed his passenger got a speeding ticket just two months before a judge granted diversion. In Butte County, a driver who was in a fatal 2020 crash got two traffic tickets last year shortly before a judge granted him diversion and then promptly got a speeding ticket.

Judge Who Helped Write the Law Defends Diversion Program

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Daniel Lowenthal helped craft the 2020 legislation. He said he’s “very protective of diversion” because he’s seen it work so well and that it could be appropriate in some vehicular manslaughter cases.

“Might a court think it appropriate to divert so they don’t lose their job and suffer the draconian collateral consequences? Potentially,” Lowenthal said.

However, he said, it would be fair for the state to ensure that the diversion still ended up on a driver’s DMV record.

Kaur, the woman charged in Connor Lopez’s death, was arraigned on Monday in Sacramento County Superior Court. Because it’s a misdemeanor case, she didn’t need to show up. After the brief proceedings, her attorney, Hendrick Crowell, declined to comment. At such an early stage in the court process, there’s no indication Kaur’s attorney will even seek diversion. Still, Allison Lyman is already meeting with lawmakers and hoping to get the possibility of such an outcome taken off the table.

For now, every Wednesday she goes to the site of her son’s death along with her mom and sister, and sometimes her daughter, she said. They stand along the side of the road holding signs with Lopez’s picture, urging drivers to be safe.

“If there was some consequence, maybe — maybe — people would think about the responsibility when they get behind the wheel of a car,” Lyman said.

This article was originally published on CalMatters and was republished under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives license.