A woman who claims NYPD officers purposely botched investigations into a fatal drink-driving accident to protect another off-duty officer now has irrefutable evidence in her lawsuit, thanks to the Internal Affairs Bureau. of the New York police.
Internal Affairs Office documents obtained by attorneys for Nia Jasmine Reynolds reveal cellphone GPS data that located the defendant at a bar minutes earlier, court documents state.
The former officer, Rohan Shaw, 50, is accused of crashing a Mazda into his 2019 white Nissan GT-R in East Flatbush on December 8, an accident that critically injured Reynolds and killed his best friend. friend, Joanna Dixon.
Officers at the scene tested Shaw with an uncalibrated breathalyzer machine so they were unable to take a blood sample at the time, Reynolds argued in a lawsuit filed in Brooklyn Federal Court.
In this sense, it was impossible to determine the degree of alcohol in Shaw’s blood at the time of the accident that occurred at 5:00 in the morning, the lawsuit says.
Dixon died just three days after his 23rd birthday. She and Reynolds were returning home from celebrating a friend’s birthday when the collision happened.
Reynolds believes the agents purposely tampered with the evidence to prevent Shaw from being prosecuted. Drunk or drugged drivers guilty of fatal accidents are almost the only ones who can be charged under New York’s vehicular manslaughter law.
However, “more than 500 previously unknown electronic records, including the parallel internal (NYPD) investigation into the handling of the car accident,” prove that the defendant was in a bar before the accident and that he was slurring when he contacted 911. said Eric Sanders, Reynolds’ attorney.
Also, officers did not activate body cameras when they responded to the scene, according to the attorney.
These discoveries strengthen Reynolds’ case, he added.
“Now that we know the dirty little secret that responding police officers intentionally tampered with evidence to protect retired police officer Shaw from criminal prosecution, what are the mayor and police commissioner going to do to hold these officers accountable? ?” Sanders asked.
“The officers should have been criminally prosecuted and fired. It is shameful.”
The two friends were riding in the backseat of the Mazda when the former officer’s SUV slammed into them at Foster Avenue and E. 55th Street, officials said.
The person behind the wheel of the Mazda had just passed a stop sign on Shaw Drive and was turning left onto Foster Avenue, police said at the time. The Mazda was struck and sent hurtling into a telephone pole, the Daily News reported.
The driver of the Mazda and another passenger sped off leaving the two women injured in the back. Paramedics transported Dixon to Brookdale University Hospital, where she was pronounced dead.
Reynolds, 26, was taken to Kings County Hospital to undergo a five-hour operation to repair her crushed pelvis. In addition, she suffered a brain hemorrhage, skull fracture, four broken ribs and a lacerated liver, court documents say.
She was hospitalized for a month, still suffers from hearing loss and “has not been able to bear any weight on her legs,” the lawsuit states.
Dixon died “due to the recklessness of an NYPD employee,” Reynolds said in 2021. “This is just a nightmare. Everyone must be held accountable for their actions. There are consequences in life, regardless of your height.”
Shaw stayed on scene and was initially charged with criminally negligent homicide, vehicular manslaughter, reckless driving, speeding and drink driving.
The charges were dropped after the Brooklyn district attorney’s office declined to prosecute him, arguing that there was “insufficient evidence to show that (Shaw) was intoxicated (and) the initially responding officer did not note any indication of impairment/intoxication and He was deemed fit for the job.
Internal affairs investigators collected GPS data that was synced to Shaw’s phone, where the off-duty agent was revealed to be at Brooklyn Prime Bar on Farragut Road in Brooklyn.
“(He) remained there for over three hours where he became drunk on alcohol prior to the car accident,” the lawsuit alleges.
After the accident, Shaw called Brooklyn Prime Bar, according to cell phone data. The man approached a bar manager to ask him to lie about being there if police came over to ask, Reynolds says in court reports.
The ex-officer then called 911 in a recorded, slurred call.
The Prime Bar, a manager and several employees have joined the lawsuit against Reynolds for having played a role in the alleged conspiracy.
When questioned, the bar manager claimed not to have known Shaw or anything about the accident “despite cell phone records [de Shaw] indicate that it was the first call immediately after the car accident,” the lawsuit reads.
For its part, the Collision Investigation Squad recovered data from Shaw’s vehicle that showed it was traveling at 85 mph before it struck the Mazda, the lawsuit claims.
The IAB recommended that the officers receive departmental charges for “hindering an active investigation by the NYPD’s Highway Collision Investigation Squad,” according to the lawsuit. It’s not clear from the lawsuit whether those charges were ever filed.
Shaw, a 22-year NYPD veteran assigned to the Bureau of Counterterrorism’s Critical Response Command at the time of the crash, retired from law enforcement in 2020.
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