Post by Shuftin on Jan 6, 2007 15:34:48 GMT -5
January 06, 2007
BY MARYANN SPOTO
A Point Pleasant Beach police officer was sentenced to five years in prison yesterday for a drunken-driving accident involving five cars in which he and three oth ers were hurt.
Patrick Flynn, who pleaded guilty in September to two counts of aggravated assault and driving while intoxicated, will have to serve more than four years of the prison term before becoming eligible for parole, said Monmouth County Prosecutor Luis Valentin said.
Flynn, 35, of Toms River, was speeding in the southbound lanes of Route 35 as he crossed the bridge between Brielle and Point Pleasant Beach when he crashed his 2001 Chevrolet Tahoe into a 1994 Ford Explorer stopped be cause the span was open. The June 25, 2005, crash touched off a chain reaction involving three other cars. Four people, including Flynn, suf fered injuries ranging from minor to very serious.
The investigation, Valentin said, revealed Flynn was driving more than 75 mph and there was no evi dence he tried to apply the brakes. His blood-alcohol level was 0.229, more than twice the legal limit of 0.08.
Originally a special officer in Seaside Park, Flynn started as a special officer in Point Pleasant Beach in May 2000 and became a full-time patrolman there in December 2001. He resigned in March, six months before his guilty plea before Superior Court Judge Patricia Del Bueno Cleary, the same judge in Freehold who sentenced him yesterday.
"Flynn's inexcusable conduct of operating a motor vehicle at high speed while heavily intoxicated re sulted in several innocent people being seriously injured," Valentin said. "This criminal conduct cost Flynn a substantial loss of his liberty as well as a career as a law enforcement officer."
www.nj.com/news/ledger/jersey/index.ssf?/base/news-5/116806188946970.xml&coll=1
BY MARYANN SPOTO
A Point Pleasant Beach police officer was sentenced to five years in prison yesterday for a drunken-driving accident involving five cars in which he and three oth ers were hurt.
Patrick Flynn, who pleaded guilty in September to two counts of aggravated assault and driving while intoxicated, will have to serve more than four years of the prison term before becoming eligible for parole, said Monmouth County Prosecutor Luis Valentin said.
Flynn, 35, of Toms River, was speeding in the southbound lanes of Route 35 as he crossed the bridge between Brielle and Point Pleasant Beach when he crashed his 2001 Chevrolet Tahoe into a 1994 Ford Explorer stopped be cause the span was open. The June 25, 2005, crash touched off a chain reaction involving three other cars. Four people, including Flynn, suf fered injuries ranging from minor to very serious.
The investigation, Valentin said, revealed Flynn was driving more than 75 mph and there was no evi dence he tried to apply the brakes. His blood-alcohol level was 0.229, more than twice the legal limit of 0.08.
Originally a special officer in Seaside Park, Flynn started as a special officer in Point Pleasant Beach in May 2000 and became a full-time patrolman there in December 2001. He resigned in March, six months before his guilty plea before Superior Court Judge Patricia Del Bueno Cleary, the same judge in Freehold who sentenced him yesterday.
"Flynn's inexcusable conduct of operating a motor vehicle at high speed while heavily intoxicated re sulted in several innocent people being seriously injured," Valentin said. "This criminal conduct cost Flynn a substantial loss of his liberty as well as a career as a law enforcement officer."
www.nj.com/news/ledger/jersey/index.ssf?/base/news-5/116806188946970.xml&coll=1