Family OKs reduced penalty in fatal hit and run

By Nick Grabbe
Staff Writer

Published on November 06, 2009

A close friend of Misty Bassi, the bicyclist killed in a hit-and-run accident on University Drive on Memorial Day, approved of last week's court settlement in which driver Parvin Niroomand avoided jail time.

Melissa Ferman, who lived with Bassi in Amherst and now lives in Georgia, said she has been in constant contact with her friend's adoptive and biological families since the accident.

"Each of us agreed that it would serve no useful purpose putting Ms. Niroomand behind bars," Ferman said in an email message. "She was, by all accounts, a very remorseful woman who before May 25 was an upstanding and active member of the community who never intended to hurt anyone."

Niroomand, 75, of Amherst, pleaded guilty to reduced charges in Eastern Hampshire District Court last week. She received three years probation, had her driver's license revoked, and was required to perform 200 hours of community service.

"But for a single error in judgment (driving while weeping rather than sitting in the parking lot or calling for a ride) none of us would be having this discussion," Ferman said. "It has been fairly evident that there is little we or the justice system could do to her that could possibly punish her more than the punishment she is already putting herself through."

Some commentators have said that if Niroomand had been a 21-year-old student, she would have gone to jail, while others have said that leniency trivializes the life that was lost, Ferman said.

"Actually, forgetting who Misty was and what she believed in and letting this event overshadow what Misty overcame in her 33 years would be a far greater insult," Ferman said. "Exacting our revenge by sending Ms. Niroomand to prison or dragging her and her family through a civil lawsuit would only exacerbate the pain."

Bassi's family has set up a scholarship in her name at University Without Walls, the UMass program she had just completed at the time of her death.

"We believe that this outcome will best honor the person Misty was," Ferman said. "Allowing Ms. Niroomand to serve her community as part of her sentence is in keeping with our wish that as much good come out of this tragic situation as possible. This is also why a memorial scholarship was set up. Putting Ms. Niroomand in jail is not going to bring Misty back. And it wouldn't make us feel any better, either."

Dominick Bassi, of Groton, Conn., who adopted Misty when she was 7, made similar points in court last week. "We want Ms. Niroomand to know that we forgive her, and to subject her to the correctional system seems very wrong," he said.

Bassi's grandmother, Betty Burke, of Groton, said of Niroomand outside the courtroom, "I wanted to put my arms around her and say I forgive her. I know she didn't do it on purpose."

Niroomand is "in her own private hell, and that's sentence enough," said Bassi's aunt, Lisa Burke of Jewett City, Conn.

Writing on the Daily Hampshire Gazette's Web site, a man identifying himself as Bassi's father wrote that the family looked at Niroomand as an individual.

"Had the person been 21, we would have looked at that person also as an individual, with all the related facts," he wrote. "We agreed among ourselves that Ms. Niroomand was worthy of our asking the state of Massachusetts for leniency."

Judge Laurie MacLeod called the accident "a behavioral aberration in a fine and high quality life." Assistant District Attorney Melissa Doran said she was influenced by the family's position in agreeing to the settlement with Niroomand's lawyer, John Pucci.

In court last week, the two attorneys revealed new information about the accident.

On the morning of May 25, Niroomand visited her sister at a nursing home in Northampton, and then saw a friend at Amherst Nursing Home on University Drive, Doran said. Driving northbound, she was feeling emotional from her visits and was wiping her eyes with a tissue when she crossed the center line at about 10:26 a.m., Doran said.

The impact with Bassi's bicycle caused head trauma that killed her almost immediately, but Niroomand thought the noise and her shattered windshield were caused by hitting a tree, Doran said. She was not speeding, but her car drove over the curb onto the grassy median on the western side of University Drive, near The Hangar restaurant, she said. After the accident, she drove to her apartment at the Clark House.

Pucci maintained that when his client left the scene, she didn't know that a person had died.

Clark House is directly across from the Amherst police station, and she made no attempt to conceal her damaged vehicle, he said. The police were quickly able to trace her because an eyewitness provided a license plate number. Her actions showed she was "clearly not in touch with the tragedy that's just occurred," Pucci said.

When the police arrived, she greeted them warmly and showed no sign of knowing why they were there, he said. Later, in an interview at the police station, Niroomand said, "I don't remember anything about hitting a person," Pucci said. Informed that the victim had died, she was so inconsolable that she was taken to the hospital, he said.

"This is a person who would never leave the scene of an accident where she knew someone was hurt," he said.

Niroomand was charged with leaving the scene of a fatal accident, which is a felony that carries a mandatory jail sentence, Doran said. This charge was reduced to leaving the scene of personal injury. Niroomand also pleaded guilty to negligent operation of a motor vehicle causing homicide.