DA: She was pregnant and drunk
Woman arrested one year after accident killed Ridge couple
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An expectant Miller Place mother was driving drunk and talking on her cell phone when she crashed her car into that of a Ridge couple last year, resulting in their deaths, Suffolk prosecutors said this week.
Jennifer Jorgensen, 30, of Parkside Avenue, was arrested June 24 on a warrant issued as part of an indictment recently handed down by a grand jury. The indictment stems from a May 2008 car crash on Whiskey Road in Ridge.
A Suffolk prosecutor told a Riverhead court Thursday, June 25, that Ms. Jorgensen was headed eastbound on Whiskey Road when she hit a car driven by 74-year-old Robert Kelly of Enfield Court in Ridge. Mr. Kelly was pronounced dead at the scene. His wife, Mary, 70, who was seated in the passenger seat, died four weeks later at Stony Brook University Hospital.
Mr. Kelly's obituary, which appeared in Newsday following the crash, stated that the couple was survived by their two sons and daughters as well as 12 grandchildren.
Kelly family members declined to comment for this story.
Ms. Jorgensen, who was eight months pregnant at the time of the crash, had an emergency Caesarean section and doctors delivered a baby girl, Ashley Jorgensen-Kaiser, who lived for about a week. No criminal charges were lodged against Ms. Jorgensen following the crash.
Laboratory analysis of Ms. Jorgensen's blood revealed a blood alcohol level of .06 percent and the presence of the anti-anxiety medication Clonazepam, DA spokesman Robert Clifford said.
Ms. Jorgensen's attorney, Jason Bassett of Central Islip, denied the charges and said he had not seen the BAC results. He also took exception with the manner in which his client was arrested. Mr. Bassett said he had arranged for his client to turn herself in on June 26, but the court issued a warrant anyway.
"If [the DA's office] really thought they had a case, there would have been a case in May," Mr. Bassett said in a phone interview following his client's arraignment.
Mr. Bassett says he has numerous witnesses who saw and spoke with Ms. Jorgensen within minutes of the crash and she "did not appear intoxicated in any way."
Mr. Bassett said he also did not know where the cell phone charge is coming from and whether or not the DA's office has cell phone records.
"The only other witnesses to [the crash] are dead," he said.
Judge Randall Hinrichs released Ms. Jorgensen on her own recognizance following the court proceeding. She could face anywhere from eight to 25 years if convicted of the top count of aggravated vehicular homicide.
peggy@northshoresun.com
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