A devastated Lengthy Island cop recalled via tears in court docket Monday how he responded to a deadly drunken wreck whereas on obligation — solely to study that his spouse, a fellow-cop, was the sufferer.
Nassau County cop Francisco Malaga, talking on the sentencing of killer drunk driver Matthew Smith in Suffolk County court docket, mentioned he was on patrol on Jan. 31 and was simply doing his job when he arrived on the tragic crash scene, when he all of a sudden realized his household had been shattered.
His 42-year-old spouse, police Officer Patricia Espinoza, lay dying within the wreckage.
“I stumbled on the crash moments after it occurred and I finished, as a result of that’s what law enforcement officials do,” a tearful Malaga advised Choose Timothy Mazzei. “I believed I used to be responding to assist somebody I had by no means met. As a substitute, I discovered my spouse, Patricia.
“Nothing in my years as a police officer ready me for that second,” he mentioned. “I watched the love of my life slip away — and that picture will stick with me the remainder of my life.”
Smith, 21, was getting back from an evening of binge ingesting on the James Joyce bar in Patchogue — and even mocked buddies who pleaded with him to not get behind the wheel, when he smashed into Espinoza’s automotive.
Smith, who had a blood-alcohol degree greater than twice the authorized restrict, blew via a crimson gentle at about 70 mph in a 30 mph zone and slammed his Chevy Silverado pickup truck into Espinoza’s car.
The married mother was rushed to Stony Brook Hospital, the place she was pronounced lifeless.
Suffolk County cops discovered a bottle of Bacardi rum and a shot glass in Smith’s truck.
The reckless drunk pleaded responsible final month to aggravated vehicular manslaughter and different fees, and was hit with a sentence of seven-and-a-half years to 22 years in state jail.
Mazzei wiped away tears as relations delivered sufferer influence statements in a courtroom full of kin and cops, amongst them Philadelphia Police Officer David Almeida, the lifeless girl’s brother.
“As a police officer, I’ve responded to shootings, stabbings, deadly crushes, and numerous tragedies, attributable to impaired drivers similar to you,” he advised Smith. ““I’ve a stood beside grieving households — I believed I understood their ache. No, I didn’t. Not till it occurred to my household.
“Nothing prepares you for the telephone name that adjustments your life eternally, nothing prepares you to bury your greatest good friend, nothing prepares you to observe just a little woman develop up with out her mom, as a result of somebody selected to drink and get behind the wheel. I might not want this ache to anybody,” he mentioned.
Relations mentioned Espinoza migrated to the US from Ecuador together with her household 20 years in the past, and later turned a corrections officer together with her brother earlier than every joined their separate police forces.
She and her husband had been elevating their younger daughter whereas on the job — till tragedy struck.
Her sister, Cathalina Ramirez, mentioned the tot won’t ever actually know her mother.
“She made folks snigger,” Ramirez mentioned of her sibling. “She made folks really feel protected. She made everybody round her really feel cherished. She devoted her life to defending full strangers as a Nassau County police officer. However to us, she was merely Patty.”
Smith saved his head down as he heard many times of the ache he had brought on.
“No sentence can restore what was taken from Officer Espinosa’s family members, however at present this
defendant begins paying the worth for his conduct,” Suffolk County DA Ray Tierney mentioned in an announcement. “He was intoxicated, rushing, and lawless behind the wheel of a 5,000-pound pickup truck, and a police officer on her option to serve her group paid together with her life.”
