Jury selection begins in trial of Flanders man charged in 2014 fatal DWI crash in Hampton Bays

Jury selection began today in Central Islip in the aggravated vehicular homicide trial of a 31-year-old Flanders, Suffolk County District Attorney Thomas Spota announced this afternoon.

Joseph Perez is charged with aggravated vehicular homicide and a slew of other charges in connection with the Jan. 5, 2014 crash that killed Donna Sartori, 56, of Middle Island on Montauk Highway in Hampton Bays.

Prosecutors say Perez was driving his F-150 pickup at a high rate of speed westbound on Montauk Highway entering Hampton Bays at about 4:15 a.m. near the Ponquogue Avenue intersection, when he drove onto the shoulder of the road, sideswiped a parked car and struck another vehicle and its driver, Sartori, who was outside of the car delivering newspapers. She was pronounced dead at the scene.

Perez had just left a nightclub where he crashed into a parked car and fled the scene without reporting, police said.

“This office secured a blood warrant and the analysis of the defendant’s blood established he had a blood alcohol level of .20, nearly three times the legal threshold of intoxication approximately four hours after the crash,” Spota said in a press release.

Charges in the nine count indictment include aggravated vehicular homicide, manslaughter, vehicular manslaughter, aggravated driving while intoxicated, reckless driving and leaving the scene. The top count, aggravated vehicular homicide as a class “B” felony, is punishable by a period of imprisonment of up to 25 years.

Perez remains in jail in lieu of $250,000 cash bail.

State Supreme Court Justice Fernando Camacho will preside at trial.

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.