West Shore Expressway (Route 440) near the Arden Avenue exit · Friday, March 20, 2015, about 4:40 a.m.
A former Linden, New Jersey police officer was sentenced to 8 1/3 to 25 years in state prison, the maximum, after a Staten Island jury convicted him of aggravated vehicular homicide for a wrong-way crash on the West Shore Expressway that killed two men.
What happened
According to the Richmond County District Attorney, Pedro Abad, then 27, had spent the night out on Staten Island with friends, including at bars and a strip club. Shortly after 4:30 a.m. he was driving on the wrong side of the West Shore Expressway near the Arden Avenue exit when his car struck an oncoming tractor-trailer. Prosecutors said he was going about 73 miles an hour, and his blood alcohol content was .24, three times the legal limit.
Two passengers were killed: Joseph Rodriguez, 28, and Frank Viggiano, 28, a fellow Linden police officer. A third passenger, Patrick Kudlac, 25, also a Linden officer, was seriously injured, and the truck driver was hurt.
The charges and the verdict
A Richmond County grand jury indicted Mr. Abad on four counts of aggravated vehicular homicide, two counts of aggravated vehicular assault, second-degree manslaughter, second-degree assault and reckless endangerment. At trial, the defense challenged how the blood sample was collected and disputed the intoxication evidence. On May 4, 2017, the jury found him guilty on every count.
What aggravated vehicular homicide requires
Aggravated vehicular homicide is a class B felony, the most serious impaired-driving charge in New York. Prosecutors must prove that the driver was impaired, that he drove recklessly, and that the reckless, impaired driving caused a death, plus at least one aggravating factor. This case had several: a BAC of .18 or higher, more than one person killed, and a death along with a serious injury to another person. Driving the wrong way on a highway at more than 70 miles an hour supplied the recklessness.
That is also why the defense focused on the blood draw. A BAC of .24 did two jobs for the prosecution: it proved intoxication, and it was an aggravating factor on its own. In a serious-crash case the chemical test is almost always the center of the fight.
The sentence
On June 14, 2017, Justice Mario Mattei of Richmond County Supreme Court imposed 8 1/3 to 25 years on each aggravated vehicular homicide count, to run concurrently. That is the maximum for a class B felony of this kind. Mr. Abad apologized in court and asked for a much shorter term. The judge told him, "You were a time bomb waiting to explode."
It is an extreme case, on this site to show how far a Staten Island DWI can climb when a crash kills someone. Most DWI arrests on Staten Island are first-offense misdemeanors with no crash at all.
Related: felony DWI · aggravated DWI and high BAC
This article is drawn from public court filings, official releases and news reports, and is provided for general information only. A charge is an accusation, not proof of guilt. Every person is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty in court. Nothing here predicts the outcome of any other case, and nothing here is legal advice.