B'klyn man pleads guilty to May DWI crash
Daniel Sajewski, 23, of Brooklyn, appeared in Suffolk County Court and pleaded not guilty to an 11-count indictment charging him with driving drunk straight through the Huntington home of two elderly women -- only to claim his then-girlfriend was behind the wheel. Credit: Handout, Steve Silverman
A Brooklyn man who was driving drunk last May when he crashed his car into a Huntington home, then talked his ex-girlfriend into taking the blame, admitted to the crimes in court Friday, Suffolk prosecutors said.
Daniel Sajewski, 23, of Brooklyn, pleaded guilty to driving while intoxicated, reckless driving and first-degree offering a false instrument for filing.
At the time of the crash, Sajewski signed an affidavit stating that his then-girlfriend, Sophia Anderson, also of Brooklyn, had been behind the wheel, prosecutors said.
In exchange for the guilty pleas, prosecutors dropped eight other charges against Sajewski, said Robert Clifford, a spokesman for District Attorney Thomas Spota.
The deal was worked out between prosecutors and Sajewski's attorney, William Keahon of Hauppauge. Under the plea bargain, Sajewski would serve 1 1/2 to 3 years in prison, Clifford said.
Keahon could not be reached late Friday for comment.
Sajewski is scheduled to be sentenced Jan. 15 before Suffolk County Court Judge Martin Efman in Riverhead.
On May 28, Sajewski blew through a stop sign and blinking red light at the end of Browns Road and crashed through the home owned by two sisters in their 90s, Helen Indiere and Virginia Bennert.
The car narrowly missed the occupants, whose bedrooms were to the left of the front door.
After the crash, Anderson and prosecutors say, Sajewski persuaded Anderson to lie and say she was driving because he wanted to avoid adding to a criminal record that included convictions for drug dealing, theft and violating probation.
Anderson, who prosecutors said was also drunk at the time, initially agreed to lie for him.
Months later, prosecutors figured out who the real driver was. Witnesses had seen Sajewski driving the car minutes before the crash, prosecutors said, and an X-ray technician at Huntington Hospital who treated Anderson saw seat-belt marks on her right shoulder -- a sign she was a passenger.
Sajewski's blood was also found on the driver's air bag, authorities said.
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