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No Apology From Trucker 3 Years After Killing Williamsburg Cyclist
By
Christopher Robbins
Published Mar 2, 2015
Modified Mar 2, 2015
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Courtesy Chieu-Anh Le Van / Support Justice for Mathieu Lefevre
By
Christopher Robbins
Published Mar 2, 2015
Modified Mar 2, 2015
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The trucker who struck and killed a cyclist in Williamsburg in 2011 and then left the scene declined to testify at a DMV safety hearing today, and refused to sit and listen to a statement prepared by the victim's mother. "If the hearing's closed, we're gonna get out of here," an attorney for Leo Degianni told an administrative law judge, as he and his client abruptly left the room.
Contacted about his involvement in the crash by The New York Times in 2011, Degianni told a reporter, "It hasn't been proven yet." Today, Degianni's lawyer, Byron Divins, Jr., conceded that his client struck and killed 30-year-old Mathieu Lefevre when he turned right onto Meserole Street from Morgan Avenue, but that it was "a horrific accident."
"My client had no idea what happened," Divins told administrative judge Marc Berger. "You could see by the video tape he didn't slow down, and when he was questioned the next day, he had no idea. And most importantly…he isn't convicted of anything. He sits in front of you convicted of nothing...As a result of an accident, he shouldn't lose his license."
Degianni was initially given two traffic citations after killing Lefevre, one for failure to use the right-hand turn signal in his 28-ton crane truck, and another for failure to exercise due care. Both were dismissed by another DMV judge.
"The video was even shown to the judge, and he said he was unable to cross examine any other parties, or something like that," Detective Gerard Sheehan testified today, explaining what happened at the hearing in which Degianni's tickets were dismissed.
"I believe that if [Degianni] was exercising due care, utilizing his mirrors…that he would have seen the bicyclist."
Judge Berger viewed two videos today that showed Degianni's truck without its signal engaged, striking Lefevre (that moment happens at around the 6:50 mark).
Mathieu Lefevre Crash--CAUTION GRAPHIC CONTENT from Vaccaro and White on Vimeo.
"It's pretty clear," Berger said after watching the footage, though he said he would need more time to render a decision.
While the DMV is supposed to hold safety hearings within a year of every fatal crash to determine whether the driver should retain their license, the hearings often suffer from long delays, and NYPD investigators rarely attend. Recent pressure from safe streets advocates have forced the DMV and the police to take the hearings seriously; the same administrative law judge supervisor who attended a safety hearing last week in Queens for the police officer who struck and killed Ryo Oyamada was also present at today's hearing, and at one point ejected a safe streets advocate for attempting to take a photo inside the small courtroom.
Degianni, who wore a red zip-up sweater and blue jeans, only testified when giving his College Point address. At one point he seemed frustrated with Detective Sheehan's inability to remember key points in the case—that Meserole is a two-way street, and that Lefevre was struck by both the passenger's side and driver's side wheels.
"They don't even know!" Degianni whispered to Divins, before Divins silenced him.
Steve Vaccaro, the attorney representing the Lefevre family in a civil action, was allowed to make a brief statement off the official record.
"The leaving the scene statute concerns whether the driver knows or has reason to know that they struck or injured someone. And in this case the dragging of the bicycle 170 feet, the dragging of the victim 30 feet from the point of impact, and the fact that the point of impact is right where the driver sat, and other pieces of evidence, suggest that the driver had reason to know that he struck someone."
Vaccaro later said that video surveillance showing Degianni inspecting his blood-spattered truck shortly after the collision was not shown, because it exists in a proprietary format that he was unable to duplicate.
In her statement, Mathieu's mother Erika Lefevre, who traveled to the hearing from Alberta, Canada with her husband, described the ordeal of being denied information and closure from law enforcement as an "excruciating experience."
"Our life has been altered forever. We think that the driver should be held accountable for his actions, causing the death of our son," she said, breaking into tears.
A few minutes later, asked for her thoughts on the hearing, Erika Lefevre said, "The judge said he was sorry for our loss, the detective said he was sorry for our loss. The only person who didn't show remorse at all was the person who killed my son."
Tagged
bushwick
mathieu lefevre
pedestrian safety
vision zero
original
Christopher Robbins
Christopher Robbins is a New York City reporter covering transportation, affordable housing, local politics, and criminal justice. His work has also appeared in New York Magazine, The Village Voice and The New York Times. Chris is a graduate of Patrick Henry High School in Roanoke, Virginia, and enjoys biking to Fort Tilden in the summertime.
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