SOMERSET, NJ—In what local
authorities are calling a "near tragedy," Charles Wentworth, a
17-year-old Rutgers Preparatory senior and member of the affluent Wentworth
family, came perilously close to suffering a consequence resulting from his own
wrongdoing Saturday.
Wentworth made his senior
photo shoot even after coming within inches of an actual repercussion from the
accident.
Wentworth, reportedly ignoring
the protests of his classmates, got behind the wheel of his turbocharged Supra
2000GT after consuming half the contents of a bottle of Goldschläger at a
friend's party. While driving westbound on Route 27, a disoriented Wentworth
drifted across two lanes of traffic and collided with a minivan carrying a
family of four, bringing the teen face-to-face with a potentially life-altering
lesson.
Wentworth escaped unscathed
and unpunished, however, when his airbags deployed and a team of high-powered
attorneys rushed to the scene and rescued him from the brink of personal
responsibility.
"Amazingly, Mr. Wentworth
did not experience a single repercussion for consuming alcohol under age or
operating a motor vehicle while intoxicated, and is furthermore completely
unaware that he did anything wrong," local police chief Marvin Taylor
said. "He is a very lucky boy."
"If he had been driving
just 5 mph faster, or if his parents hadn't had the influence to keep the
matter out of court and the endless financial resources to lease a car of the
exact same make and model to prevent him from having to face even the
relatively trivial humiliation of being taunted by his peers for driving a
slightly less expensive vehicle—my God, who knows what could have
happened?" Taylor added. "He could have died or, worse, been held
accountable for his actions."
The accident
According to police reports
that have since been shredded and stricken from Wentworth's permanent record,
when briefly taken into custody, the privileged teenager began swearing,
vomiting, and kicking at the windows of the squad car in which he was
momentarily placed following the collision. Wentworth later said the only thing
that got him through that dark time was thinking of his rich, well-connected
loved ones. With them in mind, he repeatedly shouted, "Don't you know who
I am?" and summoned the strength to refuse a field sobriety test.
"A lot of kids in
Charles' situation would have confessed and accepted punishment for their
mistake, but my son is strong," said Wentworth's father, aluminum magnate
Herman Wentworth, who after arriving at the crash site told his son that
"everything is taken care of," and while Charles sat in his father's
BMW texting his friends, loudly threatened to call the police commissioner if
any charges were pressed. "Charles would never allow himself to give up
and gain valuable insight into the way things work in the real world without a
fight."
District Judge and close
friend of the Wentworth family Donald Lamb agreed.
"Charles is very lucky to
be alive and well-off," Lamb told reporters. "The fact that he was
able to walk away from this crash with no injuries, zero remorse, and his
skewed priorities in one piece is a miracle."
Despite returning to the
safety of his $2.3 million home, Wentworth's harrowing brush with consequence
was not over.
A week after the near ordeal,
Wentworth was again put in jeopardy of learning a lesson when he was nearly
sentenced to 50 hours of community service. Tragedy was averted, however, when
his mother paid a consultant to testify before the judge that Wentworth had
suffered emotional trauma. Further, during this time, Wentworth was forced to
put his video game on pause for several seconds in order to sign affidavits
stating that the Breathalyzer was administered improperly.
"To think that I was that
close to seeing that there is an entire society with its own laws and standards
outside my protected sphere of wealth and privilege—it's frightening,"
Wentworth said. "It almost makes you consider your actions and their
impact on others. Almost."
"I'm just grateful I can
finally get back to my life as a self-centered prick who believes the entire
world revolves around him," Wentworth added. "After all, I was just
admitted to Columbia despite almost failing out of high school because I rarely
attended class, and it would have been a shame to have had to defer for a
semester just because of some legal...unpleasantry."
At press time, Wentworth is
resting comfortably on a six-figure inheritance in a chaise lounge by his
backyard pool. The other four victims of the crash remain in intensive care at
St. Peter's University Hospital, suffering from conditions ranging from poor to
lower-class.
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