A Flanders man was arrested for aggravated DWI and charged with a felony under Leandra’s Law after a motor vehicle accident in the parking lot of Riverhead High School on Harrison Avenue Wednesday morning, according to Riverhead Town Police.
Police said Jesse R. Goodale III, 67, was intoxicated when the 2013 Toyota he was operating was involved in an accident in the school parking lot Wednesday morning. Officers responded to a report of a motor vehicle accident at 9:41 a.m., according to a police report. No one was injured in the crash, police said.
Police said Goodale had a blood alcohol concentration of .24 percent while he operated a vehicle that carried a 14-year-old passenger.
Goodale was charged with aggravated driving while intoxicated and with driving while intoxicated with a passenger who is 15 years old or less in the vehicle.
He was arraigned in Riverhead Justice Court and released on $10,000 cash bail, according to Riverhead Justice Court records. Goodale is due back in court on Nov. 26.
Leandra’s Law makes a driving while intoxicated charge an automatic felony if the operator carried any passengers under the age of 16. The law was enacted in 2009 after the death of 11-year-old Leandra Rosado, who was killed when an SUV in which she and seven other children were passengers crashed on the Henry Hudson Parkway in Manhattan in October 2009.
Editor’s note: A criminal charge is an accusation. By law, a person charged with a crime is presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
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