A woman was recently acquitted by a Morris County jury on charges of vehicular manslaughter stemming from a fatal car accident in East Hanover, New Jersey.
The tragic car crash occurred on an East Hanover road on May 5, 2012.
The 35-year-old suspect, who is from Parsippany NJ, was reportedly intoxicated at the time of the motor vehicle accident. The suspect allegedly had a blood alcohol concentration (BAC) of .133 percent, which is higher than the legal limit in New Jersey of .08 percent.
The victim, a 49-year-old man who lived in East Hanover, was struck by the suspect’s car as he stood outside his pickup truck, which was parked on Ridgedale Avenue in East Hanover, NJ. The suspect allegedly veered off the roadway and slammed into the victim’s truck.
The victim died as a result of catastrophic injuries sustained in the vehicle collision.
The suspect was later charged with aggravated manslaughter and vehicular homicide. She was also cited for numerous traffic offenses, including Driving While Intoxicated (DWI), reckless driving, and failure to maintain a lane.
During the recent trial, the defendant’s attorney was highly critical of the police investigation into the fatal car crash. For example, one point raised during the trial was that the only police officer who initially responded to the accident scene was a close friend of the victim.
At the conclusion of the trial, held in Morris County Superior Court in Morristown, NJ, the jury found that the defendant did not recklessly cause the death of the victim. The jury deliberated for one day before reaching its verdict.
After the jury handed down the not-guilty verdict, the victim’s widow shouted at the jury and said, “You people are all nuts.”
If the defendant had been convicted on the aggravated manslaughter charges, she could have been sentenced to a term of incarceration of 30 years in New Jersey State Prison.
Although the defendant was found not guilty, she was not immediately released from police custody. Instead, she was taken back to the Morris County Correctional Facility in Morristown NJ so that she could be processed for release. The defendant has been held at the Morris County jail for the past four years on a $400K bail amount.
For more information about this case, see the DailyRecord.com article, “Not Guilty: Morris Jury Clears Woman in East Hanover Fatal Crash.”
