Tuesday, April 12, 2005

D.A. BROWN: ASTORIA CARPENTER ARRAIGNED ON CHARGES OF DRIVING UNDER INFLUENCE OF ALCOHOL AND LEAVING SCENE OF INCIDENT WITHOUT REPORTING AS FELONY IN NEAR-FATAL COLLISION THAT INJURED THREE FEMALES –- TWO CRITICALLY

Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown today announced that an Astoria carpenter has been arraigned on charges of driving while under the influence of alcohol and leaving the scene of an incident without reporting as a felony in a near fatal collision at an Astoria intersection around midnight on Sunday that injured three female passengers in a vehicle allegedly struck by the defendant -- two of them, a girl, 10, and her cousin, 18, critically.

District Attorney Brown said, “Our investigation is continuing and the charges could be upgraded if sustainable evidence of criminal negligence or recklessness is obtained. It is alleged that the defendant’s blood alcohol level of 0.20 was more than twice the legal limit. The case is another heartbreaking example of the terrible and tragic consequences that can result from mixing alcohol and driving.”

District Attorney Brown identified the defendant as Gerard Gormley, 36, of 25-10 Crescent Street in Astoria, Queens, a carpenter. The defendant has been charged with Operating a Motor Vehicle While Under the Influence of Alcohol or Drugs and Leaving the Scene of an Incident Without Reporting as a Felony and faces up to four years in prison if convicted.

The defendant was arraigned in Queens Criminal Court earlier today before Judge Lenora Gerald who set bail of $25,000, and ordering the defendant to surrender his passport with a return date of April 26, 2005.

The District Attorney said that a criminal complaint charges that on April 10, 2005 at about 11:55 p.m. the defendant was operating a 1991 Chevrolet Caprice proceeding eastbound on 35th Avenue at 31st Street in Astoria, Queens when he struck another vehicle –- a 2001 Ford Taurus -- and caused injuries to three female passengers of the other vehicle including Ilda Ujkaj, 10, and Selma Purovic, 18, her cousin, who sustained critical head injuries, and Fatbardha Ujkaj, 37, Ilda’s mother, who sustained a dislocated shoulder.

District Attorney Brown said that the complaint additionally charges that an intoxilyzer test administered to the defendant resulted in a reading of .20 percent blood alcohol content. The legal limit in New York is .08 percent.

The District Attorney said that the complaint further charges that the defendant stated to police that he thought that he had “got into an accident with another vehicle, that he had four beers and that he had fled the scene.”

District Attorney Brown said that Ilda Ujkaj remains in a coma and on a respirator at Long Island Jewish Hospital and that Selma Purovic remains in critical but stable condition at Astoria General Hospital.

Assistant District Attorney Vance T. Kuhner of the District Attorney’s Homicide Investigations Bureau is prosecuting the case under the supervision of Assistant District Attorneys Peter T. Reese, Bureau Chief, Peter J. McCormack III, Deputy Bureau Chief, and Richard B. Schaeffer, Senior Trial Attorney, and the overall supervision of Executive Assistant District Attorney for Major Crimes Charles A. Testagrossa and Deputy Executive Assistant District Attorney for Major Crimes Daniel A. Saunders.

It should be noted that a criminal complaint is merely an accusation and that a defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty.