Don and Drew Rosenberg

My name is Don Rosenberg. I am a retired entertainment and publishing executive.  My son Drew, 25, was a second-year law student in San Francisco in 2010 when he was run over by Roberto Galo on his way home from school.

Galo, driving without a driver’s license, attempted to make a last second left hand turn and collided with Drew who was in the intersection. They were both moving slowly but Drew flew over the front of Galo’s car. Had Galo stopped Drew would have walked away with minor abrasions and bruises. Instead Galo accelerated driving over Drew’s body. Drew’s helmet had come off and wedged under Galo’s rear tire.  He backed up driving over Drew a second time and then attempting to flee went forward. A man stood in front of Galo’s car and he stopped with his rear tire on Drew’s abdomen. Five men lifted the car off his body.

We were originally told that Galo was an illegal alien, only to be told a few days later that he was in the country legally. We were told by the DA’s office that Galo’s preliminary hearing was going to be continued and not to come to San Francisco for it. They had it without us present. We were told that we had no right to be there and we wouldn’t be able to speak. In California Marcy’s Law guarantees the right of every victim to attend and speak at every hearing. 

We were continually lied to by the San Francisco DA’s office who was only prosecuting this case because we refused to allow them to take a plea bargain. We learned 11 months after Drew’s death that Galo had entered the country illegally in 1999 when an ICE agent heard me on a radio program refer to him as a legal immigrant.

The original charge of felony vehicular homicide was reduced to a misdemeanor vehicular manslaughter at the preliminary hearing. Galo was convicted and sentenced to 6 months in jail. Without notification to us he was released after 43 days by Sheriff Ross Makarimi the same man who released Kate Streinle’s killer.

USCIS refused to deport Galo telling our Congressman, Henry Waxman, that Galo had only committed one crime of moral turpitude.   After many months at great personal and financial cost I finally got Galo deported. At his deportation hearing I learned that his wife had a deportation order from 2006. She never showed up and no one went to get her. Had she been deported my son would be alive. They were driving to parenting class when they killed Drew.