Oceanside, NY - December 6th, 2013 - Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice announced that a Lynbrook man was sentenced today to his twelfth drunk driving conviction, as well as other charges after he hit and injured two senior citizens who were crossing Merrick Road in Oceanside on their way to dinner last year.
Sean Crane, 51, received the maximum sentence of 5 years and 10 months to 14 years in upstate prison from Judge Philip Grella today. On October 10 Crane pleaded guilty to the entire indictment against him, including felony Aggravated Driving While Intoxicated, two counts of felony Driving While Intoxicated, Unauthorized Use of a Vehicle in the First Degree, Aggravated Unlicensed Operation of a Vehicle in the First, Second, and Third Degrees, two counts of Assault in the Third Degree, Reckless Driving, and Reckless Endangerment in the Second Degree.
“Our roads will be a safer place with Mr. Crane in prison,” DA Rice said. “This defendant’s history of repeated drunk driving convictions is proof that the only way to protect our community from the most dangerous offenders is to put them behind bars.”
DA Rice said that at approximately 6:15 p.m. on May 26, 2012, Crane took the keys to his girlfriend’s 2011 Nissan Juke and was driving eastbound on Merrick Road in Oceanside when he hit a 76-year-old Merrick woman who was walking south across the roadway while holding hands with her 78-year-old husband.
Crane swerved into oncoming traffic but hit the female victim with the passenger-side mirror of his vehicle. The impact broke the female victim’s wrist and threw her into her husband. Both victims fell onto the roadway. The female victim also suffered road rash to her legs while her husband suffered a torn Achilles tendon and needed nine staples to close a wound he suffered when his head hit the roadway.
Crane parked a short distance away and returned to the scene on foot, where he was arrested shortly thereafter by officers from the Nassau County Police Department’s Fourth Precinct. His blood-alcohol content was measured at .20 percent approximately two hours after the crash.
This was Crane’s 12th drunk driving conviction since 1981, 10 of which have been felonies and two of which have resulted in Crane serving time in an upstate prison. Six of his 12 convictions have come from Nassau County incidents; the others are from Suffolk County.
Assistant District Attorney Michael Bushwack of DA Rice’s Vehicular Crimes Bureau is prosecuting the case. Crane is represented by Gerard McCloskey, Esq.
