Legal News

Cyclist-assaulting physician sentenced to five years

By Richard Binder

Christopher Thomas Thompson, a doctor and the founder of a medical records company, was found guilty last Friday of six felonies and a misdemeanor for assaulting a pair of cyclists with his car.  Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Scott T. Millington sentenced Thompson to two years and added a three-year enhancement because one of the cyclists, Ron Peterson, suffered serious bodily harm when Thompson braked in front of the cyclists and Peterson went through the rear window of the car.

Last year Thompson was driving behind Peterson and Christian Stoehr and stopped them to have words, insisting that they ride single file rather than two abreast.  The doctor then pulled in front of them and hit the brakes.  He told the first police officer on the scene that he did so intentionally "to teach (the two riders) a lesson."  Stoehr hit the back of the car and suffered a grade-three shoulder separation and road rash.  Peterson broke his nose when he went through the window, and shattered several of his teeth. More than 90 stitches were required to reattach his nose.

Thompson was also convicted of similarly harassing two other cyclists who documented an earlier run-in with the doctor on Mandeville Canyon Road.

Judge Millington also ordered that Thompson be stripped of his driver?s license for life.

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h/t James Moss

Full post as published by Legal Pad | LA on January 12, 2010 (boomark / email).