Veronica Bilbao de la Vega, the wife of One Sotheby’s International Realty President Daniel de la Vega, was sentenced to probation in the crash that killed a University of Miami student last year.
Bilbao de la Vega was driving her husband’s Cadillac Escalade near Coral Gables Senior High School in early March when she turned left onto LeJeune Road from Altara Avenue and she struck and killed Daniel Bishop, court filings show. Bishop was in the crosswalk on his electric scooter.
“She crushed him to death,” said Robert Boyers, his family’s attorney.
Bilbao de la Vega, who’s an assistant public defender in Miami-Dade County, was charged with failure to use due care, a traffic violation, and a second degree misdemeanor of driving with an expired license, according to court filings. She pleaded no contest to the charges.
Miami-Dade Judge Marcus Bach Armas ordered her to pay the maximum fine of $1,000, plus court costs, and serve 500 hours of community service.
Bishop, a 22-year-old senior at the University of Miami, had previously survived the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida in 2018, Boyers said. Bishop had accepted a job as a math teacher at Gulliver Prep, the attorney added.
Now, the family, led by Bishop’s parents Susan and Jason Bishop, plans to file a civil lawsuit against Daniel and Veronica de la Vega, Boyers said.
“Criminal law does not adequately punish people for negligent conduct even when it results in horrific consequences,” he said. “Our hands are not tied, and we intend to hold the defendants fully accountable.”
Bilbao de la Vega was driving 17 miles per hour in the morning of Monday, March 4, when she struck Bishop. She told police officers that she didn’t see Bishop and that she looked right to check for oncoming traffic, court filings show. The state found no evidence that she was distracted when the accident occurred. Days after the crash, she renewed her license, which expired about four years ago, filings show.
In a statement provided by a spokesperson for Daniel de la Vega, he said, “Veronica and our entire family are completely distraught and heartbroken by this tragic accident. Words cannot express the devastation we feel for the Bishop family and others who knew and loved this remarkable young man.” De la Vega leads Miami-based One Sotheby’s, one of the top luxury brokerage firms in South Florida. De la Vega and his mother, CEO Mayi de la Vega, co-founded the company in 2008.