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by Alan McBride
WEST PALM BEACH, FLA. -- The multimillionaire owner of the International Polo Club in Palm Beach County is going away from the polo ponies for a long time.
John Goodman was sentenced to 16 years in prison for a death that occurred in 2010.
According to prosecutors, Goodman was drunk when he ran a stop sign, ramming his car into another man's car.
The second car flipped and sank into a canal. The driver died.
Authorities say Goodman drove away from the scene immediately, and waited an hour before calling 911.
Had Goodman stayed on the scene and acted, prosecutors said the other man might have survived.
As it was, by the time he was arrested, Goodman's blood-alcohol level was still twice the legal limit.
Goodman was sentenced despite a last-ditch attempt by his attorneys to get a re-trial. They claimed that a juror's behavior the night before deliberations was cause enough to get the case thrown out.
The juror, in a self-published book, had said he tossed back three gin-and-tonics the night before deliberations began. He claimed he wanted to see if that would impair him.
Medically, the baseline for metabolizing alcohol is one ounce per hour. That's the maximum that the liver can process.
The prosecution said the juror's drinking test was not enough to call for a new trial.
The judge agreed with the prosecution.
The case had become locally notorious for more than a few bizarre twists. The most skin-crawling of those twists, however, was Goodman's decision to legally adopt his adult girlfriend as his daughter.
Prosecutors had described the move as one designed to cover Goodman's assets in the event of an attempted civil suit by his victim's relatives.
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