Report: Miller Place Woman Back on Trial in Fatal Crash Case

According to a report in Newsday (subscription required), a Miller Place woman charged with being impaired by alcohol and a prescription drug in a fatal head-on crash is back on trial.

After a hung jury in the first trial last March, Jennifer Jorgensen, 32, is now in court again. The report states she is charged with driving head-on into another car in 2008 on Whiskey Road in Ridge, killing three: Robert Kelly, 74; his wife, Mary Kelly, 70; and Ashley Kaiser, Jorgensen's daughter born prematurely in an emergency procedure.

In the report, defense attorney Martin Lorenzotti noted it took police 13 months after the crash to arrest Jorgensen. Suffolk Assistant District Attorney Al Croce points to blood tests showing alcohol and clonazepam. Lorenzotti also said the blood test was so small the lab had to add blood from a bank in order to test it.

From Newsday (Subscription Required) 

"No one at the [crash] scene smelled alcohol on her breath, and some were 4 inches from her face," he said. Jorgensen was coherent and spoke without slurring her words after the crash, Lorenzotti said.

...

But Croce said there was plenty of evidence not only of impairment, but also of recklessness.

"Whiskey Road is not a straight road," he said. "It is not forgiving. It has curves. It does not have shoulders. It demands respect."