Streetsblog New York City

The office of Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance scored a significant victory last week, earning a homicide conviction in the case of a driver who killed a pedestrian in East Harlem nine years ago. But the circumstances of the crash, and their striking similarity to a 2011 fatality that resulted in a slap-on-the-wrist plea bargain, raise questions about how city prosecutors handle most pedestrian deaths.

On January 2, 2003, 82-year-old Francesca Maytin was crossing Third Avenue between East 107th and East 108th streets when Lynette Caban backed her Jeep Cherokee into the intersection, striking Maytin hard enough to throw her a distance of over 18 feet, according to a Vance press release. Caban, now 39, was driving with a suspended license at the time of the collision, and had received four summonses for “similar conduct” in the three months prior. She also had a plastic bag taped over the right rear window of her vehicle, which obstructed her view. On January 13, Caban was convicted of criminally negligent homicide. She is scheduled to be sentenced in March. (The Post reports that Caban may not face jail beyond time served, and says she continues to drive using a different name.)

The Caban case was brought by Vance’s predecessor, Robert Morgenthau, and concluded only after the Court of Appeals ruled in 2010 that driving with a suspended license can be used as evidence of criminal negligence. That decision was another big win, and was hailed by Vance as “a significant step in holding drivers accountable for dangerous and unsafe operation of a vehicle.” Which makes the case of Edwin Carrasco all the more puzzling.

On June 30 of last year, Yolanda Casal, 78, and her 41-year-old daughter Anais Emmanuel were crossing Amsterdam Avenue near West 98th Street when Carrasco, 38, backed into them with his Ford Explorer. Casal was killed, Emmanuel hospitalized. Like Lynette Caban, Carrasco was driving with a suspended license. Vance did not charge Carrasco for killing Casal or injuring Emmanuel, though Carrasco was reportedly breaking at least two laws at the time of the crash. According to the online database of the New York State Unified Court System, Carrasco pled guilty to a top charge of aggravated unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle in the third degree, a misdemeanor stipulating that he drove without a license when he knew or should have known that he didn’t have one. Carrasco’s penalty: a $500 fine.

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For at least the second time this year, an unlicensed driver will be punished with no more than a token fine for killing a Manhattan pedestrian.

On June 30, Yolanda Casal, 78, and her 41-year-old daughter Anais Emmanuel were crossing Amsterdam Avenue near West 98th Street when Edwin Carrasco, 38, of Paterson, New Jersey, drove his Ford Explorer into them while backing up in pursuit of a parking spot. Casal was later pronounced dead at St. Luke’s Hospital; Emmanuel was hospitalized with injuries.

Reports indicated that Carrasco, who has a history of license suspensions and reckless driving, was initially charged by NYPD with driving with a suspended license, unsafe backing and failure to exercise due care. Though Carrasco was reportedly breaking at least two laws at the time of the crash, Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance levied no charges related to the death or injuries caused by Carrasco’s negligence.

According to the online database of the New York State Unified Court System, Carrasco pled guilty in Manhattan Criminal Court on September 22 to a top charge of aggravated unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle in the third degree, a misdemeanor that stipulates that Carrasco drove without a license when he knew or should have known that he didn’t have a license. He is due to pay a $500 fine in December.

Days after Casal was killed, the unlicensed dump truck driver who ran down Upper East Side pedestrian Laurence Renard pled guilty to aggravated unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle in the third degree and, like Carrasco, was fined $500.

As a DA candidate, Vance pledged to hold dangerous drivers accountable for their actions. In July, responding to a query regarding the investigation of Casal’s death, a Vance spokesperson told Streetsblog: “When we prosecute a case we look at the elements of the law and the facts of our case to determine whether we can go forward with the case. If we find that the facts of a case fit criminally negligent homicide, we will not hesitate to charge them.”

The manslaughter plea of David McKie, sentenced earlier this month for running down Manhattan pedestrian Karen Schmeer as he fled police following a petty theft, points to a trend in vehicular crimes law that is resulting in lighter sentences for drivers who kill.

On the evening of January 29, 2010, McKie was behind the wheel of a Dodge racing north on Broadway after he and two other men, also in the car, shoplifted over-the-counter cold medication from an Upper West Side pharmacy. Schmeer was on her way home when McKie struck her as she attempted to cross Broadway at 90th Street. She was 39.

McKie was initially charged with murder, but in July prosecutors from the office of Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance allowed him to plead to manslaughter. On September 7 he was sentenced to five to 15 years. Vance’s office reportedly backed off the murder charge in light of a recent decision by the Court of Appeals — the state’s highest court — that reversed a conviction in a similar case.

In October 2004, according to court documents [PDF], Michael Edward Prindle led police on a high-speed chase through Rochester after he and another man were caught trying to steal two snow plows. Prindle, who was driving, subsequently rammed another vehicle, killing a passenger. Prindle was convicted of murder, but last February the Court of Appeals overturned the verdict.

From the Prindle ruling:

[W]e conclude that the evidence adduced at trial does not support the jury’s conclusion that defendant evinced a depraved indifference to human life … Here, at most, the evidence adduced was legally sufficient to support a finding of reckless manslaughter.

“The assessment of the effect of Prindle by the Manhattan district attorney’s office is regrettably correct,” says Maureen McCormick, Nassau County ADA and traffic justice trailblazer. “The Court of Appeals decisions in recent years appear to be systematically decriminalizing vehicular cases. Oddly it comes as the legislature — ever so slowly — is attempting to better define and prioritize these cases, at least to a degree.”

The ramifications are significant, as the Prindle decision is one of several to demonstrate bias against cases in which crimes are committed with cars. Last week, the State Supreme Court’s Appellate Division upheld the murder conviction of Martin Heidgen, the drunk motorist who in 2005 killed limousine driver Stanley Rabinowitz and 7-year-old Katie Flynn as Flynn’s family returned home from a Long Island wedding. The case made national headlines due the gruesome nature of the crash, the unquestionable innocence of its young victim, and the vigor with which McCormick’s boss, Nassau District Attorney Kathleen Rice, pursued it. But with Heidgen’s legal team set to mount another challenge in the Court of Appeals, the ultimate outcome is in doubt.

To give prosecutors a better shot at getting justice for victims like Karen Schmeer, McCormick says it’s up to Albany to correct loopholes in state traffic law — as the Court of Appeals itself has suggested. “In a common law society it is incumbent that the legislature reacts swiftly to decisions that do not represent the intent or spirit of the legislation that the Court purports to interpret. That does not really happen here with the speed necessary to be effective.”

“Much needs to change,” adds McCormick. “We keep working toward that change.”

The unlicensed dump truck driver who struck and killed an Upper East Side woman last winter will walk away with a $500 fine.

Diego Tapia-Ulloa, 23, was rounding the corner at First Avenue and E. 90th Street on the evening of January 24 when he hit 35-year-old Laurence Renard, who died at the scene. Tapia-Ulloa was arrested and charged with aggravated unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle in the third degree.

Renard’s death, along with that of pedestrian Jason King, prompted East Side residents and officials to call on NYPD and Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance to step up enforcement against reckless drivers — specifically through VTL 1146, the enforcement mechanism behind New York State’s new vulnerable user laws.

On July 7, Tapia-Ulloa pled guilty in New York Criminal Court, and the fine was imposed. He was not charged for killing Renard.

“Clearly there should be a greater penalty than $500 for a professional driver who loses his license, and then drives illegally anyway, and kills someone,” says attorney Steve Vaccaro of Rankin & Taylor. “For starters, the driver should be prevented from driving for a significant period of time.”

But as Vaccaro notes, it’s hard to say what additional penalties might have been appropriate, as so little is known about the collision. “Was the truck driver really speeding as he turned the corner, as witnesses interviewed by the media claimed? Did Renard ‘dart’ in front of the speeding truck? Or was she in the crosswalk crossing with the light? The crash could have been mostly her fault, or mostly the trucker’s fault, because almost no meaningful information has been released by NYPD.” (Disclosure: Streetsblog has retained Vaccaro for legal services to expedite freedom of information requests.)

The guessing game that routinely ensues after a New York City traffic death is symptomatic of a dysfunctional system that fails victims at every level. Without crucial information withheld by police and prosecutors it is often impossible to judge whether justice has been served. A new law requiring NYPD to release traffic crash data is in its first stages of implementation, but while it will shed light on the location and main contributing factors of each crash, it will not divulge details of crash investigations.

Perversely, it could be that VTL 1146 is making it easier for drivers who injure and kill to escape more serious charges. VTL 1146 is enforced by NYPD and the Department of Motor Vehicles by way of traffic summonses and, while the DA may advise police to apply it in certain cases, it does not fall under the purview of the district attorney’s office except for repeat offenders. (Vance’s vehicular crimes staff have described violations of Elle’s Law and Hayley and Diego’s Law as “traffic infractions.”) The dump truck driver who backed over Jason King was charged with violating VTL 1146, as was Edwin Carrasco, the unlicensed driver who on June 30 killed Yolanda Casal and injured her daughter while backing up in pursuit of a parking spot on the Upper West Side. While VTL 1146 was intended to facilitate a minimum charge for careless driving, it looks to be evolving as the go-to in cases where more serious charges seem to be justified.

Like Diego Tapia-Ulloa, Edwin Carrasco was driving with a suspended license, and was also charged with third degree aggravated unlicensed operation. Streetsblog has received no indication from Vance’s office that additional charges against Carrasco may be forthcoming. It’s entirely possible that the unlicensed driver who killed Yolanda Casal will get off as easy as the unlicensed driver who killed Laurence Renard. But that’s only a guess.

The man who killed an Upper West Side pedestrian and injured a second while backing up in pursuit of a parking spot made his first court appearance last Friday on a charge of driving without a license.

On June 30, Yolanda Casal, 78, and her 41-year-old daughter Anais Emmanuel were crossing Amsterdam Avenue near West 98th Street when Edwin Carrasco, 38, of Paterson, New Jersey, drove his Ford Explorer into them. Casal was later pronounced dead at St. Luke’s Hospital; Emmanuel was hospitalized with injuries.

Reports indicated that Carrasco, who has a history of license suspensions and reckless driving, was initially charged by NYPD with driving with a suspended license, unsafe backing and failure to exercise due care.

According to the online database of the New York State Unified Court System, Carrasco was arraigned in Manhattan Criminal Court on Friday with a top charge of aggravated unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle in the third degree, a misdemeanor that stipulates that Carrasco drove without a license when he knew or should have known that he didn’t have a license. The charge has nothing to do with killing or injuring anyone.

We reported last week that potential charges ranged from a violation of VTL 1146 (the enforcement mechanism behind Hayley and Diego’s Law and Elle’s Law) to second degree murder, with criminally negligent homicide as the most serious charge likely to be applied.

It is possible that additional charges may be levied, pending an investigation by Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance. When Streetsblog checked with Vance’s office on Friday, a spokesperson said only that charges could not be revealed prior to arraignment. Further requests for information on the case have gone unanswered.

As a DA candidate, Vance pledged to hold dangerous drivers accountable for their actions, to buck the status quo of a criminal justice system that treats traffic injuries and fatalities as blameless “accidents.” Yolanda Casal was one of three people killed by drivers in Manhattan during a three-day span last week. To date, none of the drivers involved have been charged for taking a life.

A woman is dead her daughter injured after they were struck by an unlicensed driver on the Upper West Side on Thursday.

Anais Emmanuel and her mother, 78-year-old Yolanda Casal, were crossing Amsterdam Avenue near West 98th Street around 5 p.m. when Edwin Carrasco, 38, backed his Ford Explorer into them while gunning for a parking spot. Casal was reportedly thrown into the air upon impact and suffered massive head injuries. The victims were taken to St. Luke’s Hospital where Casal was pronounced dead. Emmanuel, 41, was reported to be in stable condition with broken ribs.

Carrasco, of Paterson, New Jersey, was initially charged with driving with a suspended license, unsafe backing and failure to exercise due care. A spokesperson from the office of Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance told Streetsblog Carrasco will be arraigned today, but could not confirm prior to arraignment what charge or charges were issued.

Northjersey.com reports that Carrasco has a history of license suspensions and reckless driving:

Carrasco’s New Jersey license had been suspended 23 times between 1992 and 1999, according to Motor Vehicle Commission records. The majority of the suspensions were for not paying fines and for being a persistent violator, agency spokesman Mike Horan said.

He has been in good standing since 1999, getting points off his license every year since then, Horan said. Before Friday’s charges, the last violation he received was for talking on a cell phone in January.

According to attorney Steve Vaccaro of Rankin & Taylor, potential charges range from a violation of VTL 1146 — the enforcement mechanism behind Hayley and Diego’s Law and Elle’s Law (pre-schooler Elle Vandenberghe suffered brain damage when she was hit by a driver backing up in pursuit of a parking spot) — to second degree murder, if the driver in fact heard and understood a warning shouted to him. Vaccaro believes criminally negligent homicide is “the highest charge that might actually be applied.” (Disclosure: Streetsblog has retained Vaccaro for legal services to expedite freedom of information requests.)

“The ‘rule of two’ is met here because driver was backing up unsafely (violation number one) and driving with a suspended license (violation number two),” says Vaccaro. “Alternatively, the court looks to whether the driver created a risk as opposed to failing to perceive one. Here, one can say the driver created the risk by backing up quickly in the direction opposite the flow of traffic.”

The so-called “rule of two” is an arbitrary precedent that, when adhered to, requires a driver be suspected of two simultaneous offenses in order to be considered negligent. As a candidate for district attorney in 2009, Vance stated that he was ready to challenge that standard.

A witness told DNAinfo that “the SUV was moving fast” and that Casal and Emmanuel “had the right of way.”

This report is filed by Streetsblog reader Steve Vaccaro.

Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance spoke last night at a town hall meeting in East Harlem, addressing a wide range of law enforcement issues including vehicular crime. His remarks provided encouragement for livable streets advocates, but he did point out some of the shortcomings in recently-enacted laws intended to protect pedestrians and cyclists.

In his prepared remarks, Vance emphasized that his office takes vehicular crime, and in particular driving while impaired, very seriously. He maintains a 40-person, specially-trained vehicular crimes unit within the DA’s office to prosecute crimes committed with vehicles.

As an example of the unit’s work, he described the recent manslaughter indictment secured against Jessica Altruz, who mowed down Margaret Fisher while honking at her in a race to squeak through a red light. Altruz left the scene but was later apprehended and quoted as saying, “It was my light. It was my light.”

Vance explained that his vehicular crimes unit independently gathered evidence not originally provided to it by police. While his office was commended (by me) for its prosecution of the case, Vance’s touting of this modest investigative step suggests the depth of neglect of vehicular crimes by his predecessor, and his description of how it came about hints at a less-than-thorough investigative job performed by the NYPD.

Vance was asked about his office’s use of recently-enacted “vulnerable user” laws, such as Elle’s Law and Hayley and Diego’s Law, and why such laws had not been applied in the fatal dooring incident that killed cyclist Marcus Ewing on East 120th Street last October. Vance explained the person who received a summons for blocking Ewing’s path with a vehicle door, sending Ewing into the path of a truck, did not have the vehicle’s keys in their possession, nor was the vehicle’s engine running at the time.  Because the laws by their terms (which are now codified as Vehicle & Traffic Law Section 1146) penalize only the “driver” of a vehicle, Vance concluded that these laws didn’t apply. Given this interpretation by the DA’s office, advocates will need to consider pushing for amendment of the law to replace the term “driver” with the phrase “operator or passenger.”

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A motorist who ran down a retired nurse to allegedly avoid stopping for a red light on the Upper West Side has been indicted for manslaughter.

According to court documents, last November 26 Jessica Altruz of the Bronx was driving her Dodge Charger at a high rate of speed on W. 93rd Street toward Columbus Avenue, where Margaret Fisher was crossing on the west side of the intersection. Rather than hitting the brake, prosecutors and witnesses say, Altruz laid on the horn before striking Fisher with such force that one bystander reportedly thought she had happened upon a film shoot. Altruz continued driving on W. 93rd until she reached Amsterdam Avenue, where she was stopped by another driver and a pedestrian witness.

Fisher, knocked some 70 feet by the impact of the collision, was pronounced dead at St. Luke’s-Roosevelt. She was 67.

Altruz, 24, was initially charged only with leaving the scene. Further investigation by Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance’s office, which included gathering witness accounts and obtaining surveillance video, led to a charge of second degree manslaughter.

“The defendant’s reckless driving ended the remarkable life of a retired nurse who, on the day after Thanksgiving, was doing nothing more than walking home with her groceries,” said Vance in a statement issued Tuesday. “Importantly, New Yorkers who provided eyewitness accounts of the crash to our Vehicular Crimes Unit were instrumental in helping the Office obtain an indictment on more serious charges than at the time of the defendant’s arrest. We are extremely grateful that they came forward to provide critical evidence.”

A tearful Altruz, who at the scene protested that she “had the light,” pleaded not guilty in Manhattan Supreme Court Tuesday. She is being held on $100,000 bail and faces up to 15 years in prison. “(She was) hell bent on making a traffic light and for her Margaret Fisher was simply an inconvenient obstacle,” said ADA Jordan Arnold, as quoted by the Daily News.

Taken in isolation, Cy Vance’s prosecution of Jessica Altruz should be encouraging to most anyone who walks the streets of New York. Consider, for instance, the stark contrast between the handling of this case and the Florence Cioffi travesty, which unfolded under the leadership of former Manhattan DA Robert Morgenthau, when a speeding drunk driver who left the scene of a fatal crash received 16 days in jail and 250 hours of community service.

Streetsblog will be watching the outcome of the Fisher case, which seems on track to rest in a jury’s hands. We’ll also be following Vance’s office to see if the dogged prosecution of apparent deadly recklessness is applied consistently in future cases where traffic violence harms New Yorkers.

On Tuesday, 21-year-old Jason King was killed by a truck driver while walking across Madison Avenue in the crosswalk. According to police, the driver overshot his destination, decided to back up, and ran over King in reverse, dragging him 30 feet before coming to a stop. NYPD decided not to charge the driver with anything more serious than a traffic summons.

The Daily News reported yesterday that police said the victim’s iPod may have prevented him from hearing the truck. It’s not clear whether the iPod factored into NYPD’s decision. But the very fact that police issued summonses to the driver indicates that they failed to pursue further options, because there are new laws on the books to suspend the driving privileges of motorists who injure pedestrians and cyclists through recklessness or negligence.

A sponsor of one of those bills, Upper East Side Assembly Member Micah Kellner, wants answers from New York City’s law enforcement agencies. Why aren’t police and prosecutors using the tools at their disposal to help keep pedestrians safe?

Yesterday Kellner sent the following letter to Manhattan DA Cy Vance and NYPD boss Ray Kelly:

Dear District Attorney Vance and Commissioner Kelly:

I am writing to you regarding an incident that occurred early yesterday morning, in which 21-year-old student Jason King was struck and killed by a dump truck that was illegally backing up the wrong way, as he was crossing Madison Avenue near 81^st Street.  I have been informed by the Community Affairs Officer at the 19^th Precinct that the driver of this truck was issued a summons for unsafe backing, but that he was not charged with any crime and no further action has been taken.

As the sponsor of Elle’s Law and a supporter of the Hayley Ng and Diego Martinez Law, I am greatly concerned that neither of these important pedestrian-protection laws has apparently been enforced in this incident.

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Traffic safety advocates were heartened last month by news that Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance will make good on his campaign promise to devote more resources to investigating acts of vehicular violence. Vance has also pledged to get behind legislation, like Hayley and Diego's law, that would reduce the number of obstacles faced by law enforcement when seeking justice for those who have been injured and killed at the hands of reckless motorists. (We would add the proposed federal "black box" standard to the list of sorely-needed legislative actions.)

Even from the vaunted office of Manhattan district attorney, getting help from DC, much less Albany, will be a tough go. On the local front, reversing years of institutional neglect will take time, and will require cooperation from a historically intransigent NYPD. Meanwhile, as the events of this week attest, dangerous driving is still an urgent problem in Manhattan, with each pedestrian and cyclist casualty a sad reminder that much-anticipated reforms can't come soon enough.

Below is a list of known Manhattan fatalities and incidents of serious injury in 2010 in which there was no sign that charges were, or would be, filed.

• January 4: An unidentified 77-year-old pedestrian was hit and killed by the driver of a tractor-trailer making a turn at Lexington Avenue and E. 42 Street. The driver did not stop until flagged down by witnesses.
• January 5: Cyclist Fuen Bai was struck by a school bus driver reportedly backing up on Delancey Street. NYPD told Streetsblog no charges were expected, describing Bai's death as "just an accident."
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