Community Corner

Lawmaker 'Optimistic' Over New Bill To Up Penalties For Hit-and-Run Drivers

Assemblyman Fred Thiele says low sentences for such drivers is a statewide issue.

The driver of the car who police said fled the scene after a fatal hit-and-run in Riverhead in December could soon be facing a stiffer penalty.

Joseph D. Plummer, 48, of Middle Island, was identified as the driver that struck his 50th birthday with family at Cliff's Rendezvous. Wayte went out to move his car and was struck while crossing East Main Street.

Plummer was arrested after an investigation led to the location of the vehicle involved in the accident, a 1999 Saturn, police said; the vehicle was located at Plummer's address and seized as evidence.

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Plummer surrendered to authorities and was charged with leaving the scene of a motor vehicle accident after a death, a felony under New York State vehicle and traffic law. 

Drivers who flee the scene of fatal accidents may face stiffer penalties in the future, though.

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Proposed legislation would increase the maximum sentence for a driver such as Plummer to 15 years. The bill upgrades the crime of leaving the scene of an incident resulting in a death from a class D felony to a class C felony. Other types of hit-and-run offenses would also be upgraded.

The bill, co-sponsored by Sen. Kenneth P. LaValle, R-Port Jefferson, passed the State Senate on Feb. 21.

Assemblyman Fred Thiele, I-Sag Harbor, who introduced the bill, said on Monday that he expects the assembly to move on the legislation sometime in May or June. "I'm optimistic that this bill will pass," he said, adding that this has been a statewide issue for quite sometime.

Suffolk County District Attorney Thomas Spota has also spoken out in support of the bill.

Spota said Plummer had been drinking vodka out of a water bottle since approximately 7 a.m. on the morning of the accident.

Plummer fled the scene after striking and killing Wayte -- and set out to concoct a scheme to hide his crime, Spota said.

To that end, Spota called for tougher penalties for those who flee the scene of an accident that results in death or serious injury.

Those who flee, he said, make it impossible to not only help the victim immediately, but to determine if the defendants were driving while intoxicated or impaired by drugs, and to subsequently charge them with more serious crimes.

"This is an epidemic," Spota said, outlining not only the Wayte hit-and-run but three others that occurred within Suffolk County over the past months. "They're beating the system," Spota said. "We need immediate legislative action."

According to an investigation conducted at the scene and witness accounts, Wayte was attempting to cross East Main Street from north to south when he was struck by Plummer and sent into the eastbound lane, where he was struck by a second vehicle, a 2006 Honda Pilot, operated by Ernest Austin, 53, of Glen Rock, Pennsylvania.

Police said Austin continued driving eastbound for a short distance before stopping after he realized he had struck someone. Spota said Austin was not charged in relation to the accident.

Plummer, Spota said, had been returning home to Ridge from work; he had been installing a pool in Aquebogue.  

"He began drinking vodka at work in the morning," Spota said. 

Plummer, who was driving his boss's car, drove back to Ridge, where he lives with his boss. According to Spota, he stopped at a gas station to call his boss. 

"They concocted a plan," Spota said. "They were going to report the vehicle stolen and collect the insurance. Then they decided that was not a good plan."

Next, Spota said, Plummer drove the car to his boss's house and put a tarp over it. The pair decided to say the car had hit a tree and "put wood splinters" on the car to make that seem plausible.

Witnesses both at the scene and at the Ridge gas station called police; Riverhead police arrested Plummer days later. 

But because he had fled the scene, police were only able to charge him with one count of leaving the scene of an incident without reporting. Plummer was arraigned on Wednesday. Bail was set at $500,000 cash or $1 million bond. He was remanded to the Suffolk County Correctional facility, where he remains.

"I'd bet you every penny if we had gotten him sooner, he would have been charged with more serious crimes," Spota said.

The district attorney credited witnesses for coming forward but said the state legislature needs to impose stiffer penalties for fleeing the scene. 

As it stands, Plummer is charged with a class "D" felony, and faces a maxiumum of seven years in jail; had he been caught sooner, he might have been hit with additional charges and faced up to 15.

"People just aren't stopping anymore," Spota said. "There should be more serious consequences for leaving the scene.There is no reconciling the disparity that occurs when drivers who remain at the scene after causing an accident face the possibility of a more severe punishment under our law than drivers who flee. I urge our state legislators to change the law now.” 

Many believe the way the current law is written, drivers who are intoxicated at the time of a fatal accident actually have incentive, Thiele said, to leave the scene because the punishment is less than if they were discovered to be driving under the influence.

“I have heard and read about too many instances in which individuals have been killed by hit-and-run drivers and it is later determined that the driver was intoxicated," LaValle said in a statement. “This bill, rightfully, closes loopholes in the current law.”

The bill was introduced following the death of Erika Hughes, 24, of Mastic, who was killed in a 2011 hit-and-run. The driver, Preston Mimms, 48, was caught nearly 10 months after and pleaded guilty in December 2012, outraging Hughes' family that he was sentenced to one and a third to four years in prison.

Wayte's family was in tears as they recalled the tragedy. "It was his birthday," said Jeri Marshall, Wayte's mother-in-law. "He was going to dinner at Cliff's Rendezvous. He was with his children and his wife."

Wayte's death left his wife Denise and children, Brooke, 24, and Alexandra, 19, devastated, she said.

"He was wonderful," Marshall said.

Peggy Bieselin, Wayte's sister, was visiting Riverhead to take her brother to dinner for his birthday and was inside the restaurant.

Bieselin and Wayte's family shared their thoughts, remembering the husband and father they loved. "He was devoted to his wife Denise and his two daughters, Brooke and Allie," she said. "He was a big Jets fan, he loved to cook, and he loved his dog, Lucky," she said.

Wayte, who worked at VTP Transmission Parts in Lindenhurst, was a loving and deeply caring man, she said.

Wayte also left behind his father, Robert Wayte, and two sisters, Bunny Wayte and Wendy Worytko.

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