Jury Declines To Charge Cop In Double Fatal Taxi Crash In Union County

ELIZABETH, NJ — A state grand jury has voted not to file any criminal charges against an Elizabeth Police Officer in connection with a 2023 fatal crash in Elizabeth that killed two people.

The deaths of Juan Carlos Alvear, 54, and Ysabel Gonzalez, 63, both of Elizabeth, were investigated by the Office of Public Integrity and Accountability (OPIA) and presented to New Jersey residents serving on the grand jury in accordance with the Independent Prosecutor Directive of 2019.

The investigation included witness interviews, photographs, review of surveillance video footage, and autopsy results from the medical examiner.

After hearing the testimony and evidence, the grand jury concluded its deliberations on Jan. 27, and voted "no bill," concluding no criminal charges should be filed against Elizabeth Police Officer Michael White.

According to the investigation, on Dec. 10, 2023, at around 5:42 a.m., officers from the Elizabeth Police Department responded to a report of the sound of gunfire in the area of Fourth Avenue and Centre Street in Elizabeth.

Elizabeth Police Officer Michael White was one of the responding officers, and he followed a vehicle of interest in his patrol car through various streets in Elizabeth and onto Routes 1&9, said authorities.

That vehicle of interest was found to have been driven by Jamie Fernandez, 21, from Elizabeth.

At the intersection of Grand Street and Routes 1&9, Fernandez drove the vehicle through a red light and crashed with a taxi, said authorities.

White's vehicle was not involved in the crash. The taxi driver, Juan Carlos Alvear, 54, of Elizabeth, and the sole passenger of the taxi, Ysabel Gonzalez, 63, of Elizabeth, were killed.

Two of the three occupants of Fernandez's vehicle were arrested and later hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries. The third person exited the car and left the scene on foot.

The Union County Prosecutor’s Office investigated and charged Fernandez, and his passenger Joel Pieretti, 19, of Elizabeth.

Fernandez and Pieretti both entered guilty pleas on Oct. 21, 2024.

Fernandez pleaded guilty to two counts of death by auto and one count of unlawful possession of a weapon. He was sentenced to two consecutive four-year New Jersey state prison terms, a total of eight years, and must serve 85 percent of the sentence before becoming eligible for parole. He was also sentenced to a concurrent five-year prison term on the charge of unlawful possession of a weapon.

Pieretti pleaded guilty to joyriding, with a time-served sentence.

Video footage from several surveillance cameras and audio from police radio communications relating to this fatal crash were released on Friday, pursuant to policies established by the Attorney General’s Office in 2019 to promote the fair, impartial, and transparent investigation of fatal police encounters. Those recordings can be viewed here.

A 2019 law, N.J.S.A. 52:17B-107(a)(2), requires the Attorney General’s Office to conduct investigations of a person’s death that occurs during an encounter with a law enforcement officer acting in the officer’s official capacity or while the decedent is in custody. It requires that all such investigations be presented to a grand jury to determine if the evidence supports the return of an indictment against the officer or officers involved. The grand jury is instructed on the elements of the potential criminal offenses, including criminal homicide offenses, that could be brought and, as required by statutes, the grand jury is instructed on self-defense and other forms of legal justification.

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