KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Tuesday is the first full day of freedom for Curtis Mertensmeyer. He left prison after serving four months of a five year sentence for a deadly drunk driving crash.
Last year Daniel Riemann was walking along Ward Parkway when Mertensmeyer hit him, and then waited days to turn himself in.
Mertensmeyer is now out on probation and able to live at his parents home in Mission Hills.
"The reason Curtis Mertensmeyer got 120 days is because his mom and dad are rich," said the victim's mother, Kelly Riemann, during an angry outburst at the courthouse on June 19 when the judge said Mertensmeyer could go free.
In the days since, even people who don't know the Riemanns are calling the decision unjust. The short prison sentence in the high profile case has lit up the blogosphere.
"I cannot stand seeing people get away with something they shouldn't do," said Scooter, a man who writes the blog "Living in the Scoot Utopia".
Scooter wrote a post using words that will pop up in future Google searches.
It says, "Do not hire this guy...some rich Mission Hills kid, lawyer mom, getting him off... it really irritated me.”
He wants to make sure Mertensmeyer faces future consequences.
Prosecutors objected to releasing Mertensmeyer. But the judge can impose a range of sentences including more jail time, or none at all.
"It's also not unusual for them to get straight probation. Disposition involving alcohol related vehicular homicides are literally all over the board," Jackson County prosecuting attorney Jim Kanatzar said.
Other bloggers are telling readers to vote Judge John Torrence off the bench when he's up for his next retention vote in five and a half years.
"I would hope that people would not vote for him this time around. I know most people just blanketly go yes or now on all of them, but I hope people remember the judge's name this time." said Scooter.
Judge Torrence is on vacation this week, and is unavailable to ask for an interview. He won a retention vote in November. Torrence was appointed to the Jackson County bench in 2001.
