Drunk Driver Pleads Guilty in Montgomery Officer's Death

ROCKVILLE, MD — The repeat drunk driver charged with fatally striking a Montgomery County Police officer – while he was working as part of a holiday task force fighting drunk driving – pleaded guilty Wednesday to a manslaughter charge.

Luis Gustavo Reluzco, 47, of Rolling Meadow Way in Olney, pleaded guilty to manslaughter by motor vehicle in the death of Montgomery County Police Officer Noah Leotta. Sentencing is scheduled for Tuesday, Aug. 23.

Officer Leotta, 24, was hit Dec. 3, 2015, by Reluzco’s car during a traffic stop on Rockville Pike; he died a week later.

Reluzco was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence of alcohol and drugs. He had been arrested twice before for drunk driving and a previous conviction for drug possession.

Reluzco turned himself in to the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office Feb. 11 following the grand jury’s indictment, police said. Reluzco was charged with manslaughter by automobile and failure to move over for an emergency vehicle on a highway.

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Montgomery County Police Chief Thomas Manger in January denounced the drunk-driving suspect in Leotta’s death, along with what he called Maryland’s weak laws that do little to punish offenders.

“(Leotta) was killed by a man who decided to smoke some dope, drink for four hours and get behind the wheel of a car,” Manger said. “This officer was killed serving the public, trying to prevent the exact crime that killed him.”

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Leotta’s grieving parents traveled to the Maryland statehouse several times to ask for a stricter law regulating convicted drunk drivers, like the man accused of fatally hitting their son.

Rich Leotta and Marcia Goldman, were at a February news conference and still visibly shaken from the loss of their son.

“My dreams are gone, I can’t get him back…I don’t want my son forgotten,” Rich Leotta said.

They joined state delegates and representatives of Mothers Against Drunk Driving in urging lawmakers to expand mandatory ignition interlocks to all drunken driving offenders in Maryland.

»Photo of suspect Luis Gustavo Reluzco, courtesy of Montgomery County Police