Victim's family frustrated with lack of prosecution for 2 men charged in deadly street racing crash

WASHINGTON - Two years after Matthew Roth was killed in a collision with two racing drivers, his father has been told he will have to wait another year before the case goes to trial.

Dave Roth walked out of D.C. Superior Court last week deeply frustrated and angry with a justice system that he said appears to care more and bend over backwards for people facing trial.

"I don't understand it," said Roth. "The problems in this world and everything that is going on, how can they drag this on so long? It kills the family. It eats you up every day. These guys should be put in jail and justice has to be done."

Roth is talking about Ryan Thompson, a former D.C. firefighter, and Rasheed Murray. These two men are accused of racing each other on 16th Street at speeds reaching 100 miles per hour in July 2015. The race ended in a crash that claimed the life of Matthew Roth, a recent graduate of the University of Maryland who had just begun his career.

"The delay seems to be just the court system in general," Dave said. "They could have got this thing done in a year if they pushed it. I also think because they are not detained, nobody cares and it just gets pushed to the back."

Murray and Thompson are both facing second-degree murder charges and have insisted on going to trial. A recent attempt to be tried separately was denied this week by the judge.

"My wife can't even show up to this," said Roth. "It kills her every day. It's torture."

For more than two years now, this father has driven down from New Jersey to Washington D.C. for every hearing.

The trial is now scheduled for September 2018.

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