A man from New York who struck a police officer, while investigating an accident on the Long Island Expressway burst into tears while on court trial. The man is testifying on the trial of another driver who was charged on the death of the said police officer.
According to Fox News, the New York man, Francis Belizaire was not charged over the death of James Olivieri, the police officer who was killed after Belizaire struck him with his vehicle. Instead, driver, James Ryan, whom prosecutors said to be driving while under the influence of alcohol, started a series of crashes which resulted to the death of the police officer.
Nassau County Prosecutors had indicted Ryan, 28 years old, who caused a series of crashes that leads to the turmoil accident. ABC News reported, Legal experts had monitored the trial and said it was a rare case. They said it is quite unique case as someone other than the driver directly engaged in a deadly crash to be indicted.
The District attorney working on the case is also making use of the causation/foreseeability legal principle. This principle explains "suspects are charged in events that are foreseeable results of their actions."Ryan reportedly had been in a bar in Manhattan drinking, which his blood-alcohol level also showed it. He could also spend 25 years in jail if convicted on the charges of vehicular homicide.
On the trial, Belizaire testified he was driving his way to home after his work as flagman with the New York City transit agency. He approached the vehicular accident on the Long Island Expressway on October 2012. Belizaire explains, he was in the left-hand lane and did not see the wreckage of Ryan's car until the last second. Belizaire struck both the vehicle and Nassau County Officer James Olivieri.
He was also given immunity after he testified about the crash to a grand jury. "There were no lights on that vehicle for me to try to avoid it," he said.
