A distinguished Staten Island pediatrician accused of mowing down a dad and his 6-year-old daughter earlier than leaving the scene of a January crash paid a $300 high-quality to make all of it go away.
Dr. Sam Leuzzi, 66, of Middletown, N.J., lower a plea take care of the Staten Island District Lawyer’s workplace this month the place he receives no jail time — only a high-quality and group service, courtroom data present.
However the ache lingers for Man Seth and daughter Zoey, who each suffered traumatic mind accidents, and Malgorzata (Gosia) Seth, the spouse and mother who turned their caretaker.
leaving the scene of an accident with out reporting it, a misdemeanor, cops mentioned. Staten Island Advance
“Dr. Leuzzi destroyed our life on January ninth. We want we may pay $300 to somebody and get our life again!” Man Seth fumed to The Submit.
Leuzzi drove his black GMC truck into Seth and Zoey, who was sitting on her dad’s shoulders whereas crossing the busy nook of Arthur Kill and Drumgoole roads in Greenridge with the household Yorkie round 5:10 p.m., police mentioned. They had been within the crosswalk.
“I’d like to know why he [Leuzzi] left the scene of the accident. It simply boggles my thoughts,” mentioned Seth, 52, a former NYPD upkeep employee who nonetheless suffers from power complications, double imaginative and prescient, facial numbness and “extreme listening to loss” in his left ear.
The crash “completely harmed my household, leading to extreme bodily and psychological harm,” the devastated dad famous throughout his impression assertion at Leuzzi’s Nov. 13 sentencing.
however witnesses advised the household Man Seth — who stands 5-foot-11 and weighs
184 kilos, was strolling with 3-foot-6, 38-pound Zoey on his shoulders
and holding her legs, after they had been hit by the black truck.
The little lady fractured her cranium, requiring surgical procedure and a titanium plate, and the daddy suffered a “catastrophic, traumatic mind damage,” mentioned household legal professional Ravi Batra, who in September filed a discover of declare that he’s planning to sue the town Division of Transportation for $101 million.
Leuzzi was arrested the day after the crash and charged with leaving the scene of an accident with out reporting it, a misdemeanor, in response to the legal grievance.
“I used to be driving. I used to be turning left and I struck a pedestrian, an grownup, and baby,” the pediatrician later advised investigators, in response to a grievance. “I didn’t inform anybody I used to be the motive force, I didn’t give my info as a result of no person requested me. I left. I felt horrible what had occurred and I used to be going to go to the police precinct within the morning.”
Leuzzi apologized to the household throughout his sentencing, however directed his feedback in direction of Choose Lisa Gray and never his victims, the household’s lawyer mentioned.
“Sadly, no justice system can sentence Dr. Leuzzi to have the identical ache and struggling because the Seth household does for the remainder of their life,” Batra advised The Submit.
advised the sentencing choose, “Thank God I didn’t
die within the accident.”
Leuzzi’s lawyer, Joseph Corozzo, beforehand insisted his consumer “remained on the scene tending to each events and waited for the ambulance to take the daddy and daughter to the hospital.”
Stated Corozzo on the plea deal: “After proving himself remorseful and accepting duty for his violation of a category B misdemeanor, Dr. Leuzzi was sentenced to a conditional discharge, $300 greenback high-quality and a continued order of safety. Dr. Leuzzi’s charged conduct concerned his failure to show his license and proof of insurance coverage through the twenty minutes that he remained on the scene of the accident attending to the injured events.”
Leuzzi, who was indicted on a felony cost for leaving the scene of an accident, pleaded responsible to a cost of leaving the scene of an incident inflicting bodily damage with out reporting — a misdemeanor.
He confronted as much as a yr in jail had he gone to trial and been convicted of the highest cost.
The Staten Island District Lawyer’s workplace didn’t return messages.
Leuzzi isn’t named within the pending go well with in opposition to the town, whose declare alleges the town Division of Transportation “negligently designed and created the damaging intersection of Arthur Kill Street and Drumgoole [Road] West.”
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