Man indicted in crash with truck that killed off-duty New Jersey police officer
LINDEN, New Jersey (WABC) -- A man has been indicted in connection with a crash that killed an off-duty police officer in New Jersey last fall.
29-year-old Ricardo Dos-Santos of Union Township is charged with first-degree aggravated manslaughter and first-degree vehicular homicide.
The accident on Route 1 in Linden in October killed his passenger, 30-year-old Hillside Police Officer Giovanni Esposito.
The Acura SUV Dos-Santos was driving collided with the rear portion of a commercial truck that was stopped at a red light.
Prosecutors said Dos-Santos's blood-alcohol level was nearly triple the legal limit of 0.08 about an hour after the crash.
Investigators determined that the SUV was traveling at an estimated 90 miles an hour at the time of impact.
Dos-Santos was arrested in January and cited at the time for driving while intoxicated, reckless driving, careless driving, speeding, failure to observe a traffic signal, and failure to wear a seat belt.
He could get 10 to 30 years in state prison if convicted on the aggravated manslaughter charge, and 10 to 20 years if convicted for vehicular homicide.
Esposito graduated at the top of his class from the Essex County Police Academy and was approaching his one year anniversary with the Hillside police department.
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