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HALF HOLLOW HILLS Copyright © 2010 Long Islander Newspapers, LLC.
Online at www.LongIslanderNews.com
N E W S P A P E R
VOLUME THIRTEEN, ISSUE 11
LONG ISLANDER NEWSPAPERS TELECOMMUNICATIONS/MEDIA BUSINESS OF THE YEAR 24 PAGES
THURSDAY, MAY 13, 2010
DIX HILLS
Driver Pleads Guilty In Jogger’s Death Shea Rosen, 20, admits he took Xanax before accident that killed Dix Hills teacher By Danny Schrafel dschrafel@longislandernews.com
The man accused of driving his SUV into two joggers on New York Avenue has pleaded guilty to drugged driving that caused the death of a teacher from Dix Hills. In exchange for a plea deal, Shea Rosen, 20, confessed in court on May 6 that he took the antidepressant Xanax before
DIX HILLS/MELVILLE
Dad Dies In Crash
A father and husband died almost immediately in a tragic accident with a tractor trailer in Melville. Suffolk police said Nicholas Daccolti, of Dix Hills, was driving his 1993 Jeep westbound on Spagnoli Road around 4:05 a.m. on Saturday. At the same time, a tractor trailer was backing into a parking lot. With the trailer partially in the westbound lane, Daccolti, 51, collided with the trailer. Melville Fire Chief Robert Warren said the Jeep ended up underneath the trailer. A physician’s assistant from the county medical examiner’s office pronounced him dead at the scene. “It was one of those very tragic accidents that thankfully we don’t see very often,” Warren said, adding that Daccolti suffered blunt trauma. Det./Lt. Thomas O’Heir confirmed Daccolti owned a landscaping business in Nassau County and may have been headed to work early. O’Heir also said drugs and alcohol are not believed to have been involved in the accident, although he was driving on a straight stretch of road when the accident occurred. “It’s certainly tragic. He’s married with children,” O’Heir said. Phone messages left for comment at Daccolti’s home on Monday were not returned. The driver of the tractor trailer, Robert Ravener, of North Massapequa, was not injured. -KOEHLER
getting behind the wheel. His car plowed into two runners jogging along New York Avenue in Huntington on Nov. 6, 2008, killing Amanda Malloy, 29, of Dix Hills and seriously injuring Vincent Saunders. Rosen, of Plainview, pleaded guilty to second-degree vehicular manslaughter, first-degree vehicular assault and a misdemeanor count of driving under the influence of drugs. He faces one-and-a third to four years in prison, according to District Attorney Thomas Spota’s office. If Rosen was convicted at a trial, he would have faced up to seven years behind bars. The plea deal came during pretrial hearings, where the victim’s family “indicated they did not want to endure the stress and trauma of a trial,” Spota’s spokesman Robert Clifford said. Following the verdict, Malloy’s mother, Barbara, said she would carry on to honor her daughter’s legacy. “It is time for me to get the steel back in my spine,” she posted on her Facebook pro-
Shea Rosen, left, admitted he was driving under the influence of drugs when he hit and killed jogger Amanda Malloy, right. file Monday morning. “Tho [sic] I will be sad forever, I must get going. Lots of fights yet to fight, hills yet to climb, I am starting the climb today in true Amanda style. She didn't get they way she was by accident.” On that fateful night in 2008, Malloy and Saunders were hit from the rear by Rosen’s 2000 Dodge Durango as they ran down the south shoulder of New York Avenue on the west side, police said.
Blood tests showed more Xanax than marijuana in the driver’s system; at the time police said he smelled of marijuana. Malloy was a fourth-grade teacher at John F. Kennedy Intermediate School in Deer Park, where she taught for seven years. A third-degree black belt, she taught karate at U.S. Karate Academy in Huntington. Since her daughter’s death, Barbara started Friends of Amanda Malloy For Education (FAME, Inc.) to raise money to send children to karate to help them build their character. Saunders is an accountant in Melville and a trained barber who used his haircutter’s chair to raise money for charities and organize barbers to participate in St. Baldrick’s. He had recovered well enough to retrace the route of their run last November to mark the first anniversary of Malloy’s death. Rosen’s sentencing is scheduled for Sept. 13.
HALF HOLLOW HILLS
School Board Race Heats Up Farm owner tosses campaign signs after caller threatens to boycott
Controversy has erupted in the race between runningmates Jeanine Bottenus and Eric Geringswald, top left, and runningmates Steve Noskin and Glen Landow, bottom left, when a caller allegedly threatened to boycott a Schmitt’s farms plant sale after the owner posted a campaign sign for Bottenus and Geringswald. By Sara-Megan Walsh swalsh@longislandernews.com
An angry spark from an unknown source has raised tempers across Half Hollow Hills as the May 18 election for school board approaches. An incident at Albert H. Schmitt’s
Family Farms in Dix Hills has become the symbol of what candidates have called a “slanderous,” “mudslinging” battle for a seat on the Half Hollow Hills Board of Education. An unidentified caller who allegedly threatened to boycott the business for posting a campaign sign has stirred controversy and
raises questions as what tone the race has taken. Jean Schmitt, daughter of farm owner Albert Schmitt Sr., said the flower and greenhouse center received a call Friday afternoon from a woman who identified herself as “the wife of a (Continued on page A17)
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