(914) 220-1086A Suffolk County judge has dismissed all charges that had been pending against a teenager in Long Island following a crash that led to the death of a passenger in his car. The accident occurred in the Hamptons last year, and was at first suspected to be a DWI. The DWI charge was dropped when his blood came back negative for alcohol. The other charge, criminally negligent homicide, was ruled improper without a coinciding DWI charge, despite the fact that the teen was speeding at the time of the incident.
According to New York Penal Law section 125.10, a person is guilty of criminally negligent homicide when “with criminal negligence, he causes the death of another person.” It is a Class E felony. Necessary to the charge is that there be at least a level of criminal negligence present. In the case against this youth on Long Island, the judge felt that speeding alone did not rise to the level of culpability necessary to sustain a charge for homicide. Without the accompanying DWI charge, the judge dismissed the homicide charge as a matter of law, The full story can be found here in the Westhampton-Hampton Bays Patch.
