Riverhead man faces Leandra’s Law charge, Riverhead cops say

A Riverhead man violated Leandra’s Law when he was drunk while driving with 2-year-old girl as a passenger, Riverhead Town police said Thursday.

Horme Lindo Guzman-Mendez, 26, is charged with felony driving while intoxicated, endangering the welfare of a child and unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle, police said.

His arraignment information was not immediately available.

Guzman-Mendez was arrested after a routine traffic stop, according to a news release.

A police spokesman Thursday could not specify the relationship between the toddler and Guzman-Mendez, and neither the spokesman nor the news release had any other information.

Under Leandra’s Law, passed in 2009, drivers who are intoxicated or impaired by drugs with a child younger than 16 in the vehicle can be charged with a felony. The law was passed after the death of Leandra Rosado, 11, who was killed Oct. 11, 2009, in a DWI accident after the minivan in which she was a passenger crashed on the West Side Highway in Manhattan.

Police said in the Thursday release that five others were arrested as part of the Suffolk County District Attorney’s DWI task force operated in conjunction with Westhampton Beach Police and Quogue Village Police.

The arrests were made at sobriety checkpoints in the Town of Riverhead and were for DWI, driving while ability impaired by drugs and driving while ability impaired by alcohol.