Community Corner
1 Year After Riverhead Fatal Hit-And-Run, Victim's Family Demands Stiffer Laws
The loss of their father and husband has changed life for the Wayte family forever.
This week will mark one year since Scott Wayte headed with his wife and children to Riverhead, where he hoped to celebrate his 50th birthday at Cliff's Rendezvous, surrounded by loved ones on Dec. 28.
Instead, celebration turned to horror as Wayte, who was heading across the street after moving his car, was struck down and killed on East Main Street, by a hit-and-run driver whom authorities say had been drinking vodka all day.
And now, after a year of grief and deep sorrow, of holidays spent without him and an emptiness in their hearts they say nothing can fill, his family is calling for stiffer penalties.
In July, the driver, Joseph Plummer, 49, was sentenced to two to six years, according to District Attorney Thomas Spota, who had initially recommended the maximum two and one-third to seven years term of imprisonment for the defendant.
“As I have said repeatedly this year, the penalty for a hit and run must be increased in the State of New York to at least a maximum of 15 years in state prison,” Spota said. "Today, to leave the scene of the accident actually results in a lesser punishment than if a driver involved was found at the scene by police to be driving under the influence.”
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According to police, the vehicle driven by Plummer was later found hidden under a swimming pool tarp at his home. Police arrested him on Jan. 2, five days after the hit-and-run.
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‘Plummer explained to police that he didn’t know what he hit. He drove to his home in Middle Island, a 13-mile trip, with a shattered windshield," Spota said.
After the initial collision, Wayte, of Brookhaven, was struck by second car, a 2006 Honda, where police found his body caught in the undercarriage of the vehicle; no charges were filed against that driver, who stopped to help.
On June 3, Plummer pleaded guilty to the charge in the indictment, leaving the scene of a motor vehicle accident involving a death.
Wayte's death left his wife Denise and children, Brooke, 25, and Alexandra, 20, devastated; Brooke said the nightmare haunts his family.
"We all saw him underneath the car," she said. "It was extremely traumatizing. We saw the whole thing, him being dragged down the street. It was terrible."
The year since has been filled with sadness, Wayte said. "My mom, my sister and I all had to spend our birthdays without him, Valentine's Day — and my parents' anniversary, which was the day after Valentine's Day."
Her entire family, Wayte said, is livid over the sentence Plummer received. "It's absolutely horrible. Two to six years is nothing when we have to live the rest of our lives without my dad."
Sitting in the courtroom over a series of appearances, Wayte said Plummer showed no remorse, and believes he cried at the sentencing only because he realized "he was going to jail."
"I am so against the penalties for hit-and-run accidents," Wayte's wife, Denise, said this week.
Thinking back on her father's life, Wayte said he was a father who never missed a lacrosse game during her entire senior year of college. "He was honestly the best dad," she said. "He was always there for me, and for my sister. He and my mom had an amazing relationship — they would have been together 26 years."
Her father, she added, was a peacemaker. "He was very calm. He never wanted to fight. He always wanted everyone to get along."
This Christmas is too painful, Wayte said, to have at her home, as it normally would have been. Instead, she'll spend the day with cousins and visit the cemetery, while her mother and sister will head to Florida to see Wayte's family.
Of the sentencing, Wayte said she'd like to see the laws changed. "Even though there is nothing I can do now about my situation, I can't imagine other people dealing with the same thing and watching someone with no remorse go to jail for such a small amount of time. Who could leave a human being in the middle of the road that way?"
Remembering the words of Judge Mark Cohen, Wayte said, "The judge told him, 'You didn't just take a life, you ruined an entire family.' And it's absolutely true. Everything is different. Everything has changed. And he doesn't care."
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