by Jim O’Neill/The Star-Ledger

A 23-year-old Colonia man wept uncontrollably in court this afternoon as his attorney told a judge the young man was not guilty of causing the alleged drunk-driving crash that killed a Perth Amboy police officer and injured two passengers last week. Tears streamed down Sean McGuirk’s cheeks as he stood before a judge in the Middlesex County Courthouse to face charges including vehicular homicide in the death of Officer Thomas Raji, 31.

McGuirk dabbed at his eyes, his face twisted in anguish, as Middlesex County Assistant Prosecutor Nicholas Sewitch recounted the criminal charges. Raji’s widow, Marisol ”Mimi” Raji, a Perth Amboy police officer who is several months pregnant with the couple’s first child, watched intently from the front row of the fifth-floor courtroom. More than 30 Perth Amboy police officers accompanied the widow to the brief hearing, packing one side of the courtroom.

Superior Court Judge Bradley Ferencz continued McGuirk’s bail at $100,000, but suspended his driving privileges until the charges are resolved. After the hearing, McGuirk, the brother of a Woodbridge police officer, slumped in a seat and tried to compose himself. His attorney, David Shivas, declined to comment.  If convicted, McGuirk faces as much as 20 years in prison. He was released on bail after being charged with killing Raji and injuring Officer Matthew Mercurio and their passenger, Gregory Efford, a prisoner who was being held on a warrant from Rahway. Raji, a police officer for 10 years, and Mercurio were transporting Efford to the Middlesex County jail in North Brunswick about 3:45 a.m. Friday when their cruiser, a 2005 Crown Victoria, was broadsided by a Nissan Altima crossing Route 1 at Green Street in Woodbridge. The crash site is about a half-mile from the Woodbridge Center mall.  Raji, who was driving, was pronounced dead at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick. Mercurio, 42, suffered broken ribs. The prisoner suffered minor injuries, authorities said.  In addition to homicide and assault, McGuirk was charged with drunk-driving, reckless driving, and running two red lights at the intersection. The charges were filed after blood-alcohol testing gave a reading of 0.107 percent, authorities said. The legal limit is 0.08.  Raji was the first Perth Amboy officer to be killed in the line of duty, city officials said. A Perth Amboy native, he joined the force in 1999. He was the second police officer to die in a traffic accident in Middlesex County in 10 days. North Brunswick Lt. Christopher Zerby, 41, was killed on Route 130 in the township on Aug. 12. Zerby had been a passenger in a rented Dodge Viper sports car driven by a fellow officer. The vehicle veered off the highway just south of Route 1.

By KEN SERRANO • STAFF WRITER • June 23, 2009

MIDDLESEX COUNTY — A Colonia man pleaded guilty Tuesday to killing a Perth Amboy police officer in August in an alcohol-fueled crash after he ran two red lights on Route 1 in Woodbridge.

Sean McGuirk, 24, will face eight years in prison, under a plea agreement struck with the Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office.
He pleaded guilty in Superior Court, New Brunswick, to vehicular homicide in the death of Officer Thomas Raji, two counts of assault by auto for injuring another officer and a man being taken to Middlesex County jail and driving while intoxicated. Charges of aggravated manslaughter and two counts of aggravated assault will be dropped at sentencing, under the agreement.  McGuirk wiped his reddened eyes with a tissue through the proceeding in Judge Frederick DeVesa’s courtroom and fought emotion throughout the proceeding. The courtroom was packed, mostly with the family members of Raji’s and other city police officers.

The accident occurred early Aug. 22, 2008, after McGuirk spent four hours drinking at Big Shots on Route 1. “When I left Big Shots, I made a poor decision to get in the car,” McGuirk told DeVesa. “I struck a vehicle that I later found out was a police vehicle.” McGuirk will have to serve about six years and nine months before becoming eligible for parole. He remains free on bail. Sentencing is scheduled for Aug. 17.
McGuirk admitted he had five or six drinks and was drinking inside Big Shots after the Route 1 bar was suppose to close. He drove a 2008 Nissan Altima through two red traffic lights at the intersection of Route 1 and Green Street in Woodbridge about 3:30 a.m. and broadsided Raji’s marked patrol car, he acknowledged.Raji, who was at the wheel, was pronounced dead at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick about an hour later. The early-morning accident also injured Perth Amboy patrolman Matthew Mercurio, 43, and a man being taken to Middlesex County Jail, Gregory Efford, 37. McGuirk had a blood-alcohol content of .107 percent when checked after the accident, but was presumed to be .139 at the time of the crash, Assistant Middlesex County Prosecutor Nicholas Sewitch said in court. Raji, 31, a 10-year veteran of the Perth Amboy police force, was the first city officer to die in the line of duty. He was the brother-in-law of Superior Court Judge Pedro Jimenez Jr. and the son-in-law of Pedro Jimenez, president of the Perth Amboy city council.
Raji’s wife, Marisol, who was 12 weeks pregnant when her husband died, expressed dissatisfaction with the plea deal. “I would like to see him get life,” she said. “”He took my husband’s life and he should get the same. When he gets out of jail he’ll be younger than my husband when he took his life. I can’t get Tommy back.” Also a Perth Amboy police officer, she said she would retire from the force so she can care for her child, Mikayla, who was born March 8. “She looks just like her father, which is what I prayed for,” she said.

 
Ken Serrano: 732-565-7212; kserrano@MyCentralJersey.com

MADD is hogging the road

Requiring that even light drinkers use breathalyzers in their cars is going too far.

 By Sarah Longwell

Last week, the House transportation committee unveiled the details of a six-year, $450 billion highway bill. Buried within is a controversial sentencing requirement for low-level, first-time drunken-driving offenders: ignition interlocks.

These in-car breathalyzers prevent vehicles from starting if a driver’s breath registers above a preset blood-alcohol concentration. Because they are so expensive, intrusive, and prone to technical failures, this penalty has typically been reserved for the most extreme offenders.

If the bill passes in its current form, Mothers Against Drunk Driving will be one step closer to its goal of prohibiting responsible adults from having a glass of wine with dinner before driving home.

The hospitality industry has already been working with traffic-safety advocates to require ignition interlocks for repeat offenders caught with high blood-alcohol concentrations. We’ve succeeded in 27 states. But under the new transportation bill, those states will be penalized if they do not impose the devices on first-time offenders – even those just one sip over the legal limit.

A 120-pound woman can reach the legal limit of 0.08 percent after two 6-ounce glasses of wine in a two-hour period. Under this proposed mandate, if such a woman drives, she could be punished with an interlock device – for behavior that is, according to several studies, no more dangerous than driving while talking on a hands-free cell phone.

Mandating ignition interlocks for all drunken-driving offenders is a one-size-fits-all approach, inflicting the same punishment on that woman and the hardcore abusers who cause the vast majority of alcohol-related fatalities. It eliminates a judge’s ability to treat different offenders differently, and America’s criminal-justice system has a terrible record with mandatory minimum sentences.

Most state legislatures have already made it clear that they favor judicial discretion, rejecting mandates for low-blood-alcohol, first-time offenders, or passing ignition-interlock bills that target high-blood-alcohol, repeat offenders. Their decisions are supported by National Highway Traffic Safety Administration statistics showing that most alcohol-related fatalities involve offenders at more than twice the legal limit.

But, under pressure from MADD, the House is poised to force those legislatures to change their laws. To those who recall the debate over lowering the legal limit from 0.10 to 0.08 percent, it’s a familiar scenario.

In 1998, Congress approved highway-funding sanctions for states that would not lower their limits after MADD insisted that doing so would save thousands of lives. It didn’t: In 2007, the number of alcohol-related fatalities was roughly the same as 10 years earlier.

In 2006, MADD projected that ignition-interlock technology – set to prevent driving at blood-alcohol levels as low as 0.02 percent – could be “standard equipment” for all American vehicles within 10 years. Three years later, we are already on the verge of requiring the devices even for marginal offenders.

If MADD’s latest push goes forward unabated, it won’t be long until your car is forbidding you from driving home after a champagne toast at a wedding or a beer at a baseball game.