Prosecutors charged an off-duty New York Police Department (NYPD) Detective who killed a 22-year-old Guyanese woman in a booze-fuelled crash in Queens, New York with criminally negligent homicide during a brief hospital arraignment on Wednesday, officials said.
According to the New York Daily News, Neville Smith, 32, was also charged with vehicular manslaughter and drunken driving for crashing his 2010 Mercedes-Benz into Vanessa Raghubar’s vehicle on the Van Wyck Expressway near Rockaway Boulevard in South Ozone Park about 04:00h on Sunday, authorities said.
Moments after the accident, Smith told responding officers he was returning home “from a dinner function for an old co-worker” when he struck Raghbuar’s car, according to court papers.
Raghubar, a psychology student at York College preparing to graduate in June, suffered a massive head injury and bleeding on the brain, officials said.
She died of her injuries at Jamaica Hospital in New York on Monday, cops said.
According to NY Daily, the soon-to-be college grad was driving home from her sister’s birthday celebration when the fatal collision took place, heartbroken family members said.
Smith, a detective assigned to the 48th Precinct in the Bronx, was heading south on the Van Wyck Expressway at an unsafe speed when he rear-ended Raghubar’s red Honda Accord in the centre lane, according to cops.
The collision sent Raghubar’s car careening across the highway onto a grassy shoulder, where it struck a tree and an overhead light pole, critically injuring her and her two passengers, the NY Daily reported.
Her younger sister Maria Raghubar, 21, and her sister’s boyfriend, Justin Harricharran, 20, remained at Jamaica Hospital, where Maria has undergone four surgeries for a shattered pelvis, a shredded bladder and a broken arm.
Maria Raghubar was seated in the rear seat when Smith struck the car, officials said. Harricharran was sitting in the passenger seat.
Smith ploughed into a Jersey barrier after hitting Raghubar’s car, officials said. He was rushed to Jamaica Hospital with serious, but not life-threatening injuries, cops said.
Neville appeared drunk and reeked of alcohol, but refused to have a breathalyser test taken for several hours after the collision, forcing investigators to get a court order to draw his blood, officials said.
A judge ordered Smith held on US$300,000 bail, officials said. If convicted, he faces up to seven years in prison, prosecutors said.
“Drinking and then driving is a deadly combination,” Queens District Attorney Richard Brown said in a statement. “The defendant — a police officer bound to enforce the law — is now accused of breaking the law and with deadly consequences.”
Raghubar’s family has been calling for criminal charges against Smith since the fatal impact.
“He was a cop and he was drunk. We want justice,” Raghubar’s aunt Esther Mongul was quoted as saying by the NY Daily News on Monday. “He was supposed to protect us, not kill us.” (Excerpts taken from NY Daily News)
