A former attorney who drunkenly rammed her car into a Herald Square Forever 21 last year has taken a plea deal.
Stella Mednik, who managed to strike five pedestrians while driving drunk and high on crack on a suspended license last December, agreed to five years in prison and three years post-release supervision in exchange for pleading guilty to various charges, including assault and vehicular assault, according to Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance.
“As a former lawyer, this defendant’s blatant disregard for not only our City’s laws, but public safety, is particularly egregious,” the DA said in a statement. “Pedestrians, cyclists, and drivers alike were endangered when Stella Mednik took the wheel in an extremely intoxicated state. Miraculously, no one was killed, but five innocent pedestrians were injured, including multiple with broken bones, by Ms. Mednik’s extraordinarily reckless decision to drive while under the influence of alcohol and crack cocaine.”
The crash occurred on West 34th Street near 6th Avenue last December, when Mednik rear-ended a car while driving a Silver Mustang rented under someone else's name. She attempted to flee the scene by making a U-turn, and ended up smashing into two more cars before finally jumping the sidewalk and crashing into the Forever 21. Those injured included a 14-year-old girl, as well as Mednik and her 45-year-old male passenger.
Though Mednik told cops at the time that she hadn't been drinking, she blew a .185 on the Breathalyzer. (0.08% is the legal limit in New York State.) Additionally, two pipes with crack residue were retrieved from her car.
Mednik, a 2002 graduate of Brooklyn Law School, had been a practicing immigration lawyer up until three years ago—her law license was suspended in 2011 after she was accused of misplacing funds. According to an online profile, she also "arraigned people in various Criminal Courts and participated on of counsel basis as well as lead trials in areas of DWI, criminal trespassing, and possession of illegal substance cases."
