A unit of investigators from the New Jersey attorney general’s (AG) office is evaluating the way the police handled a case involving a fatal car collision and Democratic New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez’s wife, according to NBC News.
The New Jersey AG’s Office of Public Integrity & Accountability (OPIA) investigators visited the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office to inquire about the case and request documents on Thursday, two individuals with knowledge of the situation told NBC News. The investigation is reportedly just starting and it is looking into how the Bogota Police Department managed the scene where Menendez’s wife Nadine Menendez killed a 49-year-old man named Richard Koop in a car crash in December 2018.
Menendez’s wife fatally struck Koop while driving her black Mercedes at night and officials at the time ruled that she was not culpable and let her go, according to The New York Times. A witness alleged the police who questioned Menendez’s wife at the time seemed to be aware of who she was and treated her preferentially as a result.
The police reports suggest they did not test her for drugs or alcohol and there is speculation about whether Menendez tried to interfere on his wife’s behalf, according to the NYT.
“It is determined that at this time [she] was not at fault for the motor vehicle crash and that Mr. Koop was jaywalking,” the Bogota Police Department sergeant reported the following day, according to the NYT.
Koop’s family seeks to understand if the police handled the scene properly, according to NBC.
“She did nothing to come and render any aid. She moved her car out of the way, but she never came — for the entire length of the video that I was given, she never came to look at him, didn’t even she — never check to see if he’s alive,” Koop’s family’s attorney Sheri Breen told NBC.
The Southern District of New York charged Menendez and his wife with three counts relating to an alleged briberyscheme in September. Both of them have pleaded not guilty.
“My understanding was this individual ran in front of her car, and she was not at fault,” Menendez’s wife’s lawyer David Schertler told the NYT. He asserted the collision has no connection to the bribery charges.
However, Menendez and his wife allegedly accepted a Mercedes-Benz valued at over $60,000 as a bribe in 2019 after her car experienced damage in the crash, which “left her without a car,” according to the indictment against them.
“The office does not confirm or deny investigations,” the New Jersey AG press office told the Daily Caller News Foundation
The Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office, Bogota Police Department and Schertler did not immediately respond to the DCNF’s request for comment.
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