What the Heck, Rick Sanchez?

By Tara Overzat

I moved to South Florida in 1991.  Being an eight-year-old I missed any chance of hearing that Rick Sanchez hit and paralyzed a man, Jeffrey Smuzinick, and fled the scene blowing a 0.15 blood alcohol level over an hour later. Granted, Smuzinick was reportedly intoxicated himself and stepped out in front of Sanchez’s Volvo after a Dolphins game on Dec. 10, 1990.  But a hit and run? Why wouldn’t you stop the car?

Sanchez never served any time and wound up pleading “no contest” to the DUI.  He was never charged with injuring Smuzinick or fleeing the scene of an accident.  Smuzinick died in a Pennsylvania nursing home in 1995. He was only 36 years old.

Jeffrey Smuzinick

I grew up watching this guy on the sensationalist WSVN-7 in the 1990s. I was happily surprised to see him on CNN after I returned from overseas.  As a naive child, he was part of the definition South Florida to me.  (Hell, one of the first nightmares I had in Florida was of Rick Sanchez doing a very strange news report about eating baseball caps. With cheese. I fell out of my bed.)

Now I see that this coward shouldn’t have been on TV at all. Not in South Florida. Not nationally with CNN. He should have been in jail for what he did.  For a man who just loved to call everyone else out for their flaws and gaffes, it turns out he didn’t have the moral fiber to own up to what he himself did. As Smuzinick’s family struggled to pay the bills for his rehabilitation, Sanchez went on about his business like nothing had happened. He didn’t even take time off from his work while awaiting trial.  Did Sanchez, who eventually made a lot of money, ever bother to give something to the family in their time of need? A time of need that he was at least partially responsible for?

I hope I’m wrong. I hope that Sanchez eventually did contact the man he hit and his family and attempt to make amends.  However, I don’t think I’m going to miss him on TV at all.

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