Crime & Safety
Report: Man Cleared of Manslaughter in Death of Lindy Man
A former Hempstead Town employee has been acquitted of manslaughter charges after his car struck and killed pedestrian Eddie Albert Cotto, of Lindenhurst, last July, according to a published report.
Former Hempstead Public Safety officer Robert Core was found not guilty of manslaughter after his car , 50, of Lindenhurst, in July 2011, according to a Newsday report.
Core, 43, was found not guilty of first and second-degree manslaughter, but Judge Jerald Carter rendered a guilty verdict on aggravated drunken driving, which is a misdemeanor.
He faces up to a year in prison at his September 27 sentencing, the report added.
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According to detectives, Core, of Hempstead, was responding to an emergency call in Levittown when he struck Cotto who was crossing Southbound on Hempstead Turnpike in the vicinity of Franklin Avenue.
Core was driving a Town of Hempstead Public Safety Vehicle, they said.
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Cotto was pronounced dead at (NUMC) upon arrival, police said.
Cops later revealed Core after the impact with Cotto on the hood of his vehicle.
From the Newsday report:
Carter said in court that evidence presented in Core's two-week trial showed Cotto had .26 percent alcohol in his blood as he crossed Hempstead Turnpike near Nassau University Medical Center. Carter said Cotto was seeking admission to the hospital's alcohol rehabilitation program, and had started drinking after being told by staff that he needed to be intoxicated to be admitted.
Shortly after Core's arrest the Town of Hempstead from his post.
"Initially they had considered suspending him," Mike Deery, a TOH spokesman, said. "Based on the actions he took on the evening in which he was intoxicated on the job, we think his dismissal was justified."
Cotto's fiancee, Diane Ware, told Newsday she was disappointed in the verdict.
"What's to stop the next person from killing someone?" Ware said. "He [Core] is twice the legal limit for drinking alcohol and driving a car. Now another family's got to get destroyed."
A spokeswoman for NUMC declined to comment on the verdict.
Read the full Newsday report here.
Read the full reports from July 2011 on by clicking , and .
Read the full report from July 2011 on Lindenhurst Patch .
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