California mom rips Newsom-backed 'diversion program' that appears to benefit her son's killer

By Fox News · Fox News

Compounding layers of leniency in California laws are allowing drivers charged with vehicular manslaughter to walk away with clean criminal and driving records, prompting calls for reform from victims’ families. Allison Lyman, who is looking for accountability for the crash that killed her son last year, believes soft-on-crime laws passed under Gov. Gavin Newsom's tenure have weakened accountability for road deaths, amounting to what she described as "negligence." "You know, our hunch is this was all happening during ‘soft on crime,’ ‘let's clear the jails,’" Lyman said of California’s laws. "And the consequence now is us — with these drivers right back on our roads." BLUE CITY ERUPTS AS 91-TIME FELON TRIES TO DODGE PRISON, WEASEL INTO REHAB AFTER CRASH Lyman’s son, Connor Lopez, was killed in a collision on April 23, 2025, when Harkit Kaur, a 50-year-old woman, turned into a clear view of incoming traffic and blocked the path of Lopez’s motorcycle, according to eyewitnesses to the accident. Kaur did not show signs of intoxication after taking a standardized field sobriety test, police reports indicate. Fox News Digital reached out to Kaur’s legal representation. After the accident, Lyman was shocked to hear the death was considered a "misdemeanor" under California laws dealing with non- violent crimes — something amounting to less than a shoplifting crime. But her shock only grew when she was told Kaur could soon have the accident wiped entirely from her record through a law Newsom approved in 2020. "I won’t ever forget the day I sat in front of the DA. He said something about a ‘diversion program.’ And then we learned: Governor Newsom signed AB 3234 into law," Layman explained. CALIFORNIA'S SOROS-BACKED PROGRESSIVE EXPERIMENT COLLAPSES AFTER A DECADE That law expanded judges’ authority to grant pretrial dismissal in some misdemeanor cases, allowing charges to be completely dismissed if defendants complete court-ordered programs and "would deem the arrest upon whi…