Our son, Brian, was dropped off by his mom at the Mall of America where he intended to meet friends and go from there to a non-alcoholic dance. Brian never made it to that dance. From the Mall, he got into a vehicle driven by an acquaintance. The driver of the vehicle stopped at a gas station and when he came out, he was suddenly acting very strange and began driving recklessly at high speeds down the side streets of St. Paul. Brian and the other two passengers begged him to stop the car but the driver continued on. The driver eventually lost control and struck an SUV head-on. Brian was knocked unconscious sustaining severe head injuries. The driver got out of the car, urinated, got back into the car and then drove to a nearby church parking lot where he removed Brian and the two girls from the vehicle, took their cell phones and left the scene. The driver was later arrested for driving while intoxicated with a blood alcohol level of .167.

Brian sustained severe head injuries, which required surgically removing part of his skull due to the swelling on his brain. He was put into a drug-induced coma and thereafter passed away.

We were referred by a friend to Jim Carey. He came to visit with me and Brian's mother at the hospital and he immediately struck me as someone who cared and was going to do everything he could for us. That is exactly what happened through it all and we even became friends. Jim was the first person we talked to and right away we wanted him to handle our son's case.

I knew of the "know your rights" advertising, but I hadn't heard of Jim personally. Jim is a good person and a family guy. I consider myself a good judge of character and he didn't project himself as somebody chasing the spotlight. It wasn't like that; he cared.

I probably could have forgiven this kid if he had gone for help right after the accident, but to leave the scene and dump them in a church parking lot to me was unconscionable. The pain of it all gets easier to handle with time but it never goes away. Please tell your kids not to get in cars with people they don't know.