Nassau DA: New Hyde Park Man Indicted for Allegedly Driving Drunk, Crashing into Unmarked Police Car
Mineola, NY - July 20, 2018 - Nassau County District Attorney Madeline Singas announced that a New Hyde Park man arraigned on July 18, 2018 on grand jury indictment charges for a New Year’s Day crash that seriously injured a Nassau County Police Department officer.
Keith Dillon, 29, was arraigned before Acting Supreme Court Justice Patricia Harrington on charges of:
- Two counts of Aggravated Vehicular Assault (a C felony)
- Assault in the Second Degree (a D violent felony)
- Two counts of Vehicular Assault in the First Degree (a D felony)
- Vehicular Assault in the Second Degree (an E felony)
- Two Counts of Criminal Possession of a Controlled Substance in the Seventh degree (an A misdemeanor)
- Reckless Endangerment in the Second Degree (an A misdemeanor)
- Three counts of Operating a Motor Vehicle Under the Influence of Alcohol (an unclassified misdemeanor)
- Operating a Motor Vehicle Under the Influence of Alcohol and or Drugs (an unclassified misdemeanor)
- Reckless Driving (an unclassified misdemeanor)
Bail was continued, and the defendant is due back in court August 15. If convicted of the top count he faces a maximum sentence of five to 15 years in prison.
“There’s no excuse for people to drive drunk and high,” DA Singas said. “Yet this defendant allegedly got behind the wheel – under the influence of both alcohol and drugs – and jeopardized the life of every single person on our streets. Willard Gomes is a brave police officer who was working the night shift on New Year’s Eve to keep us safe from drunk drivers. Tragically, he must live with the injuries he sustained that night while protecting us. My office is committed to aggressively prosecuting this case – and every case – against people who drink and drive.”
DA Singas said at approximately 2:24 am on January 1, the defendant was allegedly driving his 2014 Dodge Ram at a high rate of speed southbound on Glen Cove Road in Greenvale – while intoxicated and impaired by Xanax – when he drove onto the center median, eventually crashing his vehicle head-on into an unmarked police car, driven by NCPD Officer William Gomes.
Gomes was on DWI patrol at the time of the crash, and the force of the collision pushed the car approximately 50 feet backwards and rotated the car approximately 180 degrees. The defendant’s vehicle flipped over and came to a stop approximately 30 to 40 feet from the officer’s car. Xanax and cocaine were allegedly found in the defendant’s car after the crash.
Officer Gomes suffered a brain bleed, broken elbow and leg fractures which required multiple surgeries to repair. To this day, he walks with a permanent limp and cannot fully bend his left elbow or touch his face with his left hand. The defendant suffered a fractured ankle.
Senior Assistant District Attorney Stefanie Palma of DA Singas’ Major Offense Bureau is prosecuting this case. The defendant is represented by Marc Gann, Esq.
A criminal charge is an accusation. A defendant is presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty.