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
