At the initial hearing, Dan Ryan didn’t speak. He couldn’t. He didn’t say anything when his parents spoke about his brother; he didn’t say anything when the parents of his brother’s killer spoke fondly of their son.
His brother, Kevin Ryan, was a freshman at Towson University when Matthew Miller’s car jumped a curb and struck him. Miller was intoxicated and fled the scene, leaving 18-year-old Kevin Ryan in the middle of the road, where he was hit by a second car. He died on Oct. 14, 2007, two days later.
But as Dan Ryan’s parents and older brother Luke spoke at Miller’s hearing in 2008 about their lost son and brother, he was unable to find any words. So he kept quiet, like he largely has since his brother died.
Until three weeks ago.
Dan Ryan, now a junior criminology and criminal justice major, received a call from his dad, who’d heard Miller – the man convicted of felony negligent manslaughter – had applied to have the charges wiped from his record entirely. If it passes, the blood would be on no one’s hands. The hearing will be held in Towson tomorrow morning.
Dan Ryan sprang to action, and at the suggestion of his fraternity’s president Zach Feuer, started a petition in protest on change.org.
He sent a link to his classes’ listservs, his fraternity (he’s a member of Kappa Sigma), the Greek community at large and to various friends and acquaintances he’s made at this university and Towson University, including some of Kevin’s old friends.
The petition’s reach began to expand. Dan Ryan’s parents sent it to colleagues and friends and acquaintances made at organizations their boys were in as children. They sent it to people they knew from the gym. They sent it to people in the community.
And those people forwarded it along to their friends, and in fewer than three weeks, it garnered more than 2,100 signatures as of last night. Dan Ryan, a Diamondback advertising representative, plans to print all the supportive notes and place a giant stack of paper on the judge’s desk tomorrow. The online petition is still accepting signatures.
It’s the best weapon he has to make sure this conviction sticks to Miller’s record, which he said deserves to stay.
“He could be able to say ‘I never did this,’ but the evidence would still be there,” said Dan Ryan, who was 16 years old when his brother was killed. “The remains of his actions would still be scattered around. No amount of legal motions is going to bring my brother back.”
That initial hearing in July 2008 was the first and only time he and Miller were in the same room together.
Miller pled guilty and served seven months of an 18-month jail sentence.
According to a statement by Miller’s lawyer, David Irwin, expunging Miller’s record would help him “secure employment in an effort to integrate him as a productive member of society.”
“Obviously it’s a very tragic case,” Irwin said, adding he has the utmost respect for the Ryans. “And we’re just trying to keep moving forward in Matt Miller’s life.”
The short sentence combined with the recent motion has sparked a sense of outrage. Thanks to the petition, this exasperation has made ripples up and down the state.
But Dan Ryan isn’t fighting this out of anger – he’s fighting it so Miller will always have to remember the lives he affected that night.
“I turn 21 this year, but I never got to go to his 21st birthday party, and he’s not going to be able to come to mine,” Dan Ryan said. “Our kids aren’t going to play together, stuff like that. So the biggest loss wasn’t what we had, it was what could have been.”
jwolper@umdbk.com
