By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Tuesday, July 16, 1991
The Record (New Jersey) | All Editions | NEWS | Page A03
The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office will not prosecute a tractor-trailer driver arrested Sunday in Teaneck after he left the scene of a Washington Heights accident in which two elderly sisters were killed.
Gerald McKelvey, a spokesman for District Attorney Robert Morgenthau, said Harold Heitzman would not be charged in the deaths of Betty Rosen, 83, and Claire Muller, 86, because there was no evidence of a crime.
Witnesses supported Heitzman’s statement that he did not know he had struck and killed the women, New York police said. Afterward he continued onto the George Washington Bridge and into New Jersey.
Heitzman, arrested after a short pursuit by Port Authority police about 20 minutes after the accident, was released from Bergen County Jail on Monday night on $1,000 bail. Police charged him with driving under the influence of a controlled dangerous substance, driving while intoxicated, eluding police, and driving 65 mph in a 55 mph zone.
“The witness statements did not support charges of leaving the scene,” said New York police spokeswoman Sgt. Tina Mohrmann. “That would have been the only charge in New York. It appears he didn’t know they [the sisters] were there.”
McKelvey said investigators were talking to witnesses and would charge Heitzman, 35, if they turn up information indicating he knowingly left the scene.
The sisters holding hands as they crossed at Broadway and 179th Street about 4:15 p.m. were on their weekly outing to a restaurant. Muller was buried Monday at Beth David Cemetery in Elmont, Long Island. Services for Rosen were pending.
He appeared to be under the influence of a drug other than alcohol, said Port Authority police Lt. George Albin, who added that state police test results on blood and urine samples taken from Heitzman should be ready in about three days.
Evidence confirming Heitzman’s impaired state during the accident could influence whether New York charges him in the deaths, McKelvey said. He added that Heitzman had a Texas driver’s license but lived in Peru, Ind.
This article contains material from The Record’s news services.
Keywords: MOTOR VEHICLE; ACCIDENT; DEATH; AGED; VICTIM; NEW YORK CITY; TEANECK; ALCOHOL; ABUSE
ID: 17349512 | Copyright © 1991, The Record (New Jersey)
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