Woman Accused Of Killing NYPD Officer In Drunken Crash Arraigned

NEW YORK CITY — A Long Island woman accused of killing NYPD Officer Anastasios Tsakos in a drunken crash officially faced the charges against her.

Jessica Beauvais, 32, appeared Tuesday in a Queens courtroom to hear the 13 counts filed by prosecutors.

Authorities said Beauvais on April 27 drove drunk along the Long Island Expressway when she struck and killed Tsakos, who was directing traffic around another alcohol-fueled crash. Tsakos, a 14-year NYPD veteran, left behind a young family.

“This is a heartbreaking case that has left the police officer’s parents, his widow and their two young children and our entire community mourning his loss," Queens DA Melinda Katz said in a statement after Beauvais's arraignment.

A judge denied Beauvais bail after prosecutors unveiled a spate of statements she made after the crash, according to the New York Daily News.

Beauvais tried to drive away after hitting Tsakos and swore at police when they arrested her, the Daily News reported.

"Why did my first accident have to be a cop?" Beauvais said in backseat of a squad car after the crash, the Daily News reported. “Not that I wanted it to be someone else, but f--k, I’ve been driving since I was 16 and haven’t hit as much as a pothole.’”

Beauvais later tearfully apologized when faced with cameras and reporters as police took her out of a precinct, the Daily News reported.

She faces up to 15 years in prison if convicted. Her charges are aggravated manslaughter in the second degree, manslaughter in the second degree, aggravated criminally negligent homicide, vehicular manslaughter in the second degree, leaving the scene of an incident without reporting, unlawful fleeing a police officer in a motor vehicle in the second and third degree, two counts of operating a motor vehicle while under influence of alcohol, operating a motor vehicle while impaired by combined use of drugs or of alcohol and drugs, reckless driving, aggravated unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle in the third degree and failure to exercise due care when operating a motor vehicle when approaching an authorized emergency vehicle.

Her next court hearing is July 27.