Suffolk County Cop Charged In Hit-And-Run
RONKONKOMA, N.Y. (CBSNewYork) -- Police on Long Island have arrested one of their own in a hit-and-run crash that left a motorcyclist seriously injured.
Officer Thomas O'Neill, 44, of Centereach, turned himself in to authorities Monday, CBS2's Jennifer McLogan reported. He has been suspended without pay from the Suffolk County Police Department, where he has worked since 2003.
He was heading to his family home in Nesconset. His relatives were at his bedside at Stony Brook University Hospital on Tuesday, his mother, Maria Giardinello, texted.
"We are thankful. He is lucky to still be alive," she wrote to CBS2.
Of the police officer charged, she added: "We now have people charged with enforcing the law setting examples of how tough laws can be circumvented."
Ernie Kottshaus, Giardinello's neighbor, said the victim rode "a motor scooter, a little thing."
"And I always see him when he's in and out, and he's very sensible," he said.
Witnesses to the hit-and-run included members of a Ronkonkoma social club
"It was a pickup truck here. He fled the scene," said witness Desi Liapakis. "Spoke to the detectives over here, and they checked the TV inside the club (for surveillance video). And they took that and said, 'Don't worry, we'll find him.'"
That surveillance video led to O'Neill, described by a neighbor as an excellent family man.
No one answered the door at the officer's home Tuesday.
O'Neill was released on his own recognizance on the felony charge of leaving the scene of an incident resulting in serious physical injury. He voluntarily submitted to a blood test Monday.
Police said, "A complete and thorough investigation is being conducted by the Vehicular Crime Unit."
A police colleague told McLogan fleeing the scene is completely out of character for O'Neill, that there must have been extenuating circumstances.
Toxicology findings on both men have not yet been made public.