Wantagh Mom: 'Total Disregard For Law' Since Daughter's Death

WANTAGH, NY — It's been a year since Kyriakoula (Kyra, as she was known to most) Gasparis was killed as a passenger in a car crash in Levittown. The driver, Eddy Delaleu, was charged with aggravated unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle, a misdemeanor, and received no jail time.

Since then, Kyra's mother Rena Gasparis, of Wantagh, has been fighting for harsher penalties for drivers who operate with a suspended license and are involved in a crash that results in death or serious injury.

He could have received up to 30 days in jail; Judge Valerie Alexander gave him a one-year conditional release and $350 fine with $88 in surcharges, a spokesperson for the Nassau County court system said.

"This is an accumulation of total disregard for the law," Rena Gasparis told Patch.

Delaleu crashed into a tree as he and Kyra return from a hiking trip with friends. Kyra, 20, a gymnastics teacher at Gardiners Avenue School, was severely hurt and died after emergency surgery.

On June 29, Rena Gasparis made her case for Delaleu to get the maximum penalty when she addressed Judge Valerie Alexander.

"There has to be accountability. There is no accountability because Judge Valerie Alexander was looking at this as a license suspension hearing, which it was," Gasparis said. "However, I would have not had to have been present if this person didn't kill my daughter."

She has been attempting to reach the courthouse for further clarification on Alexander's ruling. She lodged a formal complaint against the judge and wrote to the supervisor of the judges, saying: "Other than being profiled, there is no other logical reason why Judge Alexander would grant no jail time."

She was told the decision is just.

"[I'm] so sorry for her loss," Paul Lamanna, district executive of Nassau County's 10th Judicial District Court, told Patch. "[But] judges have to rule on charges before them."

Gasparis also reached out to several local lawmakers, including state Sen. Todd Kaminsky, who is running for Nassau County district attorney, to pen a new law that makes it a felony when a driver with a suspended license is involved in a crash that kills a passenger or causes serious injury. A felony count generally carries a minimum one-year prison sentence in New York.

"The judge sentenced the driver to a fine," Brendan Brosh, a spokesperson for acting Nassau District Attorney Joyce Smith, said. "We agree with Mrs. Gasparis that the law is inadequate. This office proposed legislation in 2015 creating a felony where a driver with a suspended license caused the death or serious injury of another person. Regrettably, the legislature failed to act on the legislation."

Despite her ruling, Alexander dealt with the highest charge possible, as there were not more serious charges such as speeding or reckless driving that the judge could have factored in during Delaleu's sentencing, Lamanna said.

While a month in jail is minimal, Rena Gasparis said she would have been "pleased" with the most severe penalty on the books.

"It would not have been enough, but it would have satisfied me," Gasparis said. "I would have expected, at the very least, for the law to be on my side, and on my daughter's side."

Gasparis said she's committed to advocating for harsher penalties for those who drive under suspension.

"I'm at the point where I'm just numb," she admitted. "Nothing phases me anymore because my life has ended."