Rockland County, NY – The father of a yeshiva student who was critically injured last fall when he was struck by a speeding car is charging the Ramapo Police Department with mishandling the incident, giving preferential treatment to the driver of the car because he is an off-duty police officer.
As previously reported on TOT News, Officer Jonathan Mosquera was running late for his shift with the Peekskill Police Department on September 7th and was speeding down Route 202 in Suffern when he attempted to illegally pass a car that was had slowed down to make a left turn into the driveway of Yeshiva Tiferet Torah.
The force of the impact sent Mosquera’s car into two teenagers who were standing in the driveway.
17 year old Marcos Tawil of Argentina was killed in the collision while 19 year old David Maldonado sustained serious injuries.
A request by NBC for an official copy of the accident report had the Town of Ramapo Police Department supplying the news outlet with a report that had all references to drugs or alcohol in Mosquera’s car blacked out.
Unedited copies of the report obtained by both NBC and TOT News indicate that an open bottle of cognac was found in Mosquera’s trunk and prescription pain killers were found inside his car.
The official reports, which were filed by multiple police officers, say that Mosquera did not show any signs of intoxication, with no further testing performed on either driver.
Police declined to perform any on-scene “Alco-sensor” testing, a direct violation of the department’s policy which says that the test should be given in “all fatal or serious personal injury accidents,” reported NBC News.
Two bottles of beer that were photographed at the scene of the accident on the ground next to Mosquera’s car were also omitted from the report and it is unknown if the bottles were there prior to the accident or if they came from Mosquera’s vehicle.
No criminal charges have been filed against Mosquera who faced charges on just two of the five violations originally issued against him, speeding and unsafe passing on the left.
A Wesley Hills judge who heard the charges against Mosquera in April reminded him that his actions had “horrible and tragic consequences” that he would have to live with for the rest of his life before ordering him to pay $450 in fines and $186 in court costs.
Maldonado’s attorney, Hershel Kulefsky, described the punishment given to Mosquera as “disgustingly outrageous.”
“He paid 450 bucks for killing one person and critically injuring another and despite pleading guilty he is still sitting on the job as a copy,” Kulefsky told TOT News.
Ramapo Police Chief Brad Weidel issued a statement saying that his officers had conducted a “diligent and professional investigation” that revealed no need for further drug or alcohol testing.
A lawyer for Mosquera said that his client would have been happy to submit to the testing had he been asked to do so, and called attempts to place further blame for the tragic accident on his client as “conspiracy theories perpetuated simply because Jonathan Mosquera happened to be an off-duty police officer.”
David Maldonado’s father, Victor, strongly disagreed with both of those statements, saying that the many unanswered questions about the accident come from the Ramapo Police Department’s mishandling of the investigation, which appears to stem from the fact that Mosquera was a fellow officer in blue.
“The badge should not give you special privilege,” said Maldonado.
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