 |
Office of the District Attorney P. David Soares Sentencing of Julie Shea ALBANY , NY – District Attorney P. David Soares today announced JULIE SHEA, 40, of the City of Cohoes, NY was sentenced today by the Honorable Thomas A. Breslin to a term in State Prison of one to three years. On July 8 th, 2005 , SHEA pled guilty to one count of Leaving the Scene of an Accident as a felony. In pleading guilty, SHEA admitted to having struck the victim in the head with her vehicle and not reporting the accident for a period of ten hours. The victim experienced severe injuries, substantial pain and other injuries requiring hospitalization and extensive medical attention. The accident took place on March 13 th at approximately 12:58 AM on Garner Street in the City of Cohoes . DA Soares said that the State Prison term was justified by SHEA’s irresponsible behavior. “SHEA turned herself in 10 hours after the accident,” Soares said. “This delay tragically compounded the impact of the crime.” The victim’s daughter read the following statement at the sentencing: “On that fateful morning, Julie Shea was faced with a decision, she could run away in hopes of saving herself or she could have called for help for my father. Julie chose to help herself and left my father lying on Garner Street with his head and faced smashed in from the impact of her vehicle in a pool of his own blood. He was fortunate enough to be found by some good Samaritans who called to get him the help and medical attention he so desperately needed.” Soares noted that by the time that SHEA reported the accident, there was no way to test her blood for alcohol content but the fact that she had just left a bar when the accident took place impacted our approach to this prosecution. “People have to realize that we will not consider it to be a harmless ‘accident’ when we have reason to believe that alcohol was involved. Driving under the influence of alcohol is a dangerous crime and a threat to public safety and we intend to prosecute these ‘accidents’ as violent crimes and we plan to seek State Prison time when we think it’s appropriate”, he said. Back to Press Releases For further information contact: Richard Arthur
|
|
