Results tagged “dwi”

Something crazy happened in Albany this week: The Assembly passed a bill, then the Senate passed their version of the bill, and then Governor David Paterson signed it into law—all in two days! Yesterday New York instituted the nation's toughest drunk driving law, making it a felony to drive intoxicated with a passenger 15 years old or under. The bill, "Leandra's Law," was named for the 11-year-old New York girl killed in a DWI crash on the West Side Highway last month. At the signing yesterday, Leandra's father Lenny Rosado vowed to take his crusade to Washington and pass the law on the federal level:

From here on, those that think it’s OK to drink and drive - with children in the car or not - will pay the price...This is not going to be where I stop. I'm going to go out there to as many people as I can and educate them about this terrible disease we have out there...and hopefully we can take it all the way up straight to the White House.

Bowing to pressure from families of drunk driving victims, state Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver has thrown his support behind a bill that would make it a felony to drive with a blood alcohol content of .08 while a passenger 15 years old or under is in the car. The legislation is named for 11-year-old Leandra Rosado, who recently died in a crash on the Henry Hudson Parkway while riding with her friend's allegedly drunk mother.

Cops and district attorneys have agreed on a new protocol allowing police to more quickly obtain warrants to draw blood from drivers who refuse to take breathalyzer tests. The new process should let police draw blood from suspected drunk drivers at least two hours faster than the current average of seven hours, the New York Times reports.

Aggravating—the State Legislature failed to pass the bill that would make it a felony for drunk drivers to have passengers under 16. The Observer reports, "[State Senator Charles] Fuschillo and State Senator Martin Malave Dilan are standing by a bill that would make it a felony to drive with a B.A.C. of over .08 with a child in the car. A spokesman for Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver said yesterday that chamber would consider (and most certainly pass) a bill where felony penalties kicked in at a BAC of .18, and kept a misdemeanor charge for anyone blowing .08 to .18." Though there was allegedly a deal, the Senate then walked away from the deal and apparently couldn't pass the original bill (felony at .08) because Paterson had to send the bill down... so now it's stalled.

Governor Paterson will ask legislators to pass "Leandra's Law," which would make driving drunk with a passenger under 16 a felony. Last month, 11-year-old Leandra Rosado was killed when her friend's allegedly drunk mother crashed on the West Side Highway. Governor Paterson's spokeswoman said, "Gov. Paterson is committed to stricter penalties for drunk drivers with children in the car, which is why he introduced a program bill on this issue on Aug. 13." The Daily News notes, "Though Paterson announced the bill in August, no one in the Legislature has even introduced it."

The off-duty officer who fatally ran over a woman hailing a cab in Brooklyn on a rainy night in September pleaded not guilty to vehicular manslaughter, driving while intoxicated, and other charges yesterday. Officer Andrew Kelly, a seven-year veteran assigned to the 68th Precinct, was driving with another off-duty officer and three civilians when he struck Vionique Valnord, 32, around 1 a.m. on September 27th.

It comes as no surprise that the off-duty NYPD detective who fatally struck an elderly pedestrian early Friday morning in the Bronx has an alcohol problem. Detective Kevin (Spike) Spellman had a blood alcohol level of 0.21 percent—more than twice the legal limit—almost six hours after the accident. Now it's being reported that this isn't the first time booze has caused problems for Spellman and others.

A Brooklyn man was charged with criminally negligent homicide and DWI after an early Sunday morning car crash that left his girlfriend dead. Jose Sandoval had been on the Brooklyn-bound side of the Staten Island Expressway when he crashed into the guardrail near the Richmond Avenue exit, and Lucia Negrete was thrown from the car.

The off-duty police detective who fatally struck a pedestrian in the Bronx yesterday morning was charged with vehicular homicide, criminally negligent homicide, and DWI. Detective Kevin Spellman had been driving a Chevrolet into the Bronx intersection of W. 232 Street and Kingsbridge Avenue, hitting 67-year-old Drana Nikac. A witness said, "He had a red light. He went through a red light and he was speeding. He was speeding."

Though former Fox 5 TV reporter Mike Sheehan originally said "neigh" to charges that he was drunk when he drove into a mounted police officer in March, yesterday he pleaded guilty to driving while impaired by alcohol. Sheehan drove into the horse and cop on Varick Street in Tribeca, leaving the cop with a bruised leg and the horse with cuts, bruises and scrapes; he refused to take a Breathalyzer test after the accident. In true Fox news style, Sheehan had claimed that the horse was actually to blame for colliding with him.

The woman who allegedly drove drunk and crashed a vehicle full of young girls on the West Side Highway—killing her daughter's 11-year-old friend—is reportedly so upset that she's on suicide watch. A sourced tells the Daily News, "The first thing she says to anyone who walks into her room is that she deserves to die. That she is going to kill herself. She's not doing well right now."

Yesterday a grand jury voted to indict NYPD Officer Andrew Kelly on charges of second-degree vehicular manslaughter and driving while intoxicated in an accident last month that killed a woman who was trying to hail a cab. If convicted, Kelly faces up to seven years in prison. Brooklyn DA Charles Hynes says that Kelly, 30, will also face trial on other charges, including speeding.

NYPD Officer Alex Kelly has been indicted on vehicular manslaughter and DWI charges in connection with the late September accident that killed pedestrian Vionique Valnord as she tried to hail a cab. Of course, Kellly managed to postpone taking a blood alcohol test for over seven hours, so he scored a perfect zero on the test, which is going to make it hard for prosecutors to make the DWI rap stick.

So sad: The daughter of the woman who allegedly drove drunk, crashing a car full of young girls on the West Side Highway and killing one, told WCBS 2 about the horrifying crash. The 1998 Mercury Sable, which was overloaded with driver Carmen Huertas and seven girls, overturned and then crashed into a tree; Huertas' 11-year-old daughter Brittany Gonzalez said, "All three girls in the back just flew out when the trunk popped open because it just popped open when we flipped once. My friend's seatbelt snapped. Leandra Rosado just flew out and she was the one in the woods."

Early Sunday morning, a Bronx woman driving a 1998 Mercury Sable—carrying seven children, including her daughter, ages 11 to 14—crashed and overturned her car on the West Side Highway. An 11-year-old girl was killed and the Daily News reports, "Investigators said Carmen Huertas' blood-alcohol content was more than one and a half times the legal limit." Huertas, 31, was charged with vehicular manslaughter and drunk driving. The girl's father said, "I call this murder."

Early yesterday morning, a 48-year-old man was killed when a suspected drunk driver T-boned his car in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn. Jorge Cortes, of Maryland, was charged with "manslaughter, vehicular manslaughter 2-degree, criminally negligent homicide and DWI," according to WABC 7.

The lawyer for the off-duty police officer who fatally ran over a Brooklyn woman Saturday night has tried to cast his client in a heroic light by telling the press that he almost saved the woman's life, and even resuscitated her momentarily. But an anonymous "source" tells the Daily News, "That story is a bunch of bull. He barely touched the girl. His hands were almost on her stomach, not her chest. His mouth never even touched her mouth."

Amid allegations that his fellow cops helped "cover-up" his intoxication after fatally running over Vionique Valnord Saturday night, the lawyer for officer Andrew Kelly fiercely defended his client, who scored a perfect zero on his blood alcohol test, administered eight hours after the accident. Attorney Arthur Aidala told the Daily News, "To be crystal-clear, Andrew wasn't drunk. Andrew wasn't surprised by his blood-alcohol level. He knows what he did that day. He tried to save that woman. He got her breathing, and at one point, she opened her eyes. He's just sad that she's not breathing today."

Today Mayor Bloomberg lashed out at the cop accused of DWI and vehicular manslaughter in the Saturday night crash that left a reverend's daughter dead. Today it was revealed that the driver, off-duty officer Andrew Kelly, scored a perfect zero on a blood alcohol test after successfully postponing it for eight hours. The NYPD Internal Affairs Bureau is investigating whether other cops at the scene helped him, and this morning Bloomberg told reporters, "Yesterday, I talked to the Reverend Varius Valnord, the father of Vionique, who was hit and killed by a car Sunday morning. It’s a tragedy that deserves the closest of scrutiny, and if true the allegations of a DWI hit and a cover-up are reprehensible."

After fatally running over a Brooklyn woman trying to hail a cab late Saturday night, off-duty cop Andrew Kelly successfully dragged his feet on taking a Breathalyzer or blood alcohol test for almost eight hours. And the gambit worked: When a doctor, acting on a warrant, finally drew Kelly's blood at 8 a.m., there was no alcohol in his system. Kelly has pleaded not guilty to charges of DWI and vehicular manslaughter; 32-year-old Vionique Valnord is dead.

The off-duty NYPD officer accused of DWI and vehicular manslaughter in the death of a Brooklyn pedestrian early Sunday morning managed to avoid having his blood alcohol level tested for over seven hours after the crash. As victim Vionique Valnord lay dying, officer Andrew Kelly, who was slurring his speech and reeked of alcohol, refused to take a Breathalyzer test, and told first responders he wouldn't easily submit to a blood test either: "I'm not going to let that happen," he said, according to a Daily News source. "You're going to have to tie me down."

Just before 1 a.m. on Sunday, Vionique Valnord, 32, was trying to hail a cab after a wedding reception in Flatbush when she was fatally struck by a Jeep Cherokee SUV; the driver was NYPD officer Andrew Kelly, 30, a seven-year veteran of the department who worked in the 68th Precinct. Four passengers in the SUV, one an off-duty cop, immediately fled the scene, but Kelly, who was off-duty, remained. His brother-in-law tells the Times that Kelly "performed CPR on the woman," and one witness tells the Post, "[Kelly] got out of the car, and he was trying to resuscitate her. He got her breathing again by the time the ambulance got here."

An off-duty cop has been arrested for an early morning DWI in Brooklyn where he fatally struck down a woman who had just left a wedding. Witnesses say Officer Andrew Kelly made no effort to slow down as his Jeep Grand Cherokee crashed into 33-year-old Veronica Valnore just after midnight in Marine Park. Valnore was trying to catch a cab after leaving a wedding at Floyd Bennett American Legion. She is said to have been pronounced dead soon after cops arrived at the scene.

It's understandable for a public school administrator to want a li'l drinky-poo after a hard day's work dealing with the kiddies, but driving to school sloshed? Those kids at IS 217 in the Bronx must be monsters! Assistant principal Melonie Lendor was arrested on the New York State Thruway in Rockland County at around 6:40 a.m. yesterday after other drivers called 911 because she was driving so erratically. Police say she failed a field sobriety test, but refused to take a Breathalyzer test. Worse: Her 10-month-old son was in the car. Still worse: This is her third drunken-driving bust. That means she's (finally) charged with felony driving while intoxicated and child endangerment. A seventh-grader at the school tells the Post, "No wonder we didn't see her today," but students should probably be used to that by now; a teacher tells the Daily News, "She was entirely missing from the school at times. She seems to make bad decisions."

Last year, a drunk driver fatally struck a livery cab in Astoria, killing the cab driver Bessy Velasquez and passenger Panayiota Demetriou. While driver Daryush Omar pleaded guilty to vehicular manslaughter (he'll be sentenced this month), Demetriou's family will sue the Queens bar that served Omar. According to the Post, "the suit would be filed under the rarely used Dram Shop Act, which holds establishments civilly liable for serving the visibly drunk." At his court hearing, Omar admitted to drinking at the Cavo Lounge even after he was intoxicated—he was found with a 0.18 blood alcohol level, over twice the legal limit. Demetriou was 30 and a doctoral student in psychology at Pace; her family said, "We are looking for justice. We want to protect other families so they won't go through this."

A Suffolk County man was awaken from his sleep yesterday morning when an SUV came crashing through his house—flying airborne into the second floor! 58-year-old John Sarli was sleeping on a couch in his den at the back of his East Moriches home around 12:25 when the Jeep Grand Cherokee driven by 20-year-old Adam Clark came flying into his foyer and landed headlights-up. Clark had run a stop sign and then hit a berm that sent him into the air for about 85 feet according to Sarli.

A nun who spent Tuesday afternoon knocking back too much "Jesus juice" was arrested for drunk driving after plowing into a tree on Long Island. Sister Lauren Hanley, 68, is the "spiritual development director" at Wantagh's St. Frances de Chantal Church, which is where she started drinking around 3 p.m. that day. Some three hours later, she was careening through residential streets in the church's 2006 Toyota Corolla, with a blood-alcohol level of 0.18, more than twice the legal limit of 0.08.

Last November, Daryush Omar was arrested after crashing his SUV into a livery cab, killing driver Bessy Velasquez and passenger Panayiota Demetriou. He had run a red light at 31st Avenue in Astoria and t-boned the cab; police found his blood alcohol was 0.176, twice the legal limit. Yesterday, Omar, who has been held without bail, pleaded guilty to vehicular manslaughter, and will face sentencing of 3 1/2 to 10 years next month. Omar, a Long Island resident, was also found to be living in the country illegally and will be deported to Afghanistan after he serves his term. The Post reports that another murder case against Omar—in 2006, he allegedly told friends to beat up a man who simply asked for directions (the man died after being beat with a steel pipe)— was dropped because "two key witnesses vanished."

A 15-year-old died from massive head injuries sustained when he was struck by an allegedly intoxicated woman in Hampton Bays on Wednesday night. According to Newsday, Joseph Marino (pictured) "was standing with his bicycle at Ponquogue Avenue and Argonne Road East at about 8:40 p.m..., talking to two friends, when Caroline Goss, 34, drove her 2001 Jeep Cherokee into him." Marino had been in a coma, Suffolk County police say that Goss, who had a previous DWI in 2003, was intoxicated and had a 6-year-old son in the car—she was charged with DWI, endangering the welfare of a child and "having an open container of alcohol in the car." A friend said that Goss is a single mom of two who works the midnight shift at a Port Jefferson Hospital and as a waitress on the weekends. Just yesterday, Governor Paterson suggested tougher penalties for drivers who drive drunk with kids in the car and for drunk drivers who kill children under 17.

The husband of the woman who, while allegedly drunk and high, drove a minivan on the wrong side of the Taconic State Parkway, killing herself, four relatives, and three men in an SUV, says that his wife was only a social drinker. Danny Schuler told the press, "I never saw her drunk since the day I met her. She was not an alcoholic. Something medically must have happened. She was a perfect wife, an outstanding mother, a hard worker, a reliable person. I would marry her again tomorrow."