Theresa Vazquez's fall at the Farmingville Fire Department parking lot results in police probe, court action

Theresa Vazquez parked in the rear lot of the Farmingville Fire Department one spring morning last year, grabbed a couple of shopping bags from her trunk and headed to the firehouse to play bingo.

Firehouse security video appears to show Vazquez walking across the parking lot on April 9, 2025, as a blue SUV backed out of a spot reserved for chiefs and commissioners and headed into the path of the mother of three from Medford. Seconds later, Vazquez, 75, was lying on the ground with a broken arm, shoulder pain and a head injury.

How Vazquez wound up injured on the pavement is at the center of a dispute that has launched a Suffolk police Internal Affairs investigation and court action that could spark a potential lawsuit against the fire department and the county.

The Farmingville fire incident report said Vazquez fell while trying to avoid the blue SUV. That version of events is echoed in an April 10, 2025, Suffolk police report.

But attorney Charles S. Gucciardo said in court papers and in a recent interview that the blue SUV hit and knocked down Vazquez. He said Farmingville fire officials have refused to speak to him about the incident. Their report, Gucciardo added, is false — and the video proves it.

"There is no other version of the facts other than what is depicted on the video," Gucciardo said. "The video speaks for itself."

Newsday reviewed the surveillance video, the court filings, the fire department incident report and the Suffolk police report.

Vazquez, a part-time supermarket employee, spent several months in a rehabilitation center after the incident to recover from her injuries. She died of cancer about six months after the incident.

Gucciardo represents Erica Christensen, Vazquez’s daughter and the administrator of her estate.

"(Farmingville Fire Department) has stonewalled and thwarted the petitioner at every turn," Gucciardo said in court papers filed last month.

On Monday, Suffolk County Supreme Court Justice George Nolan approved a request to file a notice of claim notifying the fire department that the family intends to sue the agency and several high-ranking officials, even though the 90-day deadline had expired.

Gucciardo said he could not file the notice of claim within the deadline because Farmingville fire officials did not provide the security video until two months after the deadline.

The video, which Gucciardo  submitted to the court and shared with Newsday, is choppy and appears to freeze at various points, including a four-minute gap Gucciardo said was an attempt to hide the identity of the driver, listed in court papers as Farmingville Fire Commissioner Edward Stewart III.

"The petitioner … provides a reasonable excuse for her failure to serve a timely notice of claim in that the difficulty in obtaining the surveillance video, determining the identity of the driver, and the death of Theresa Vazquez, contributed to the delay," Nolan wrote in Monday’s order.

People who wish to file lawsuits against government agencies in New York are required to file a notice of claim within 90 days of an incident, allowing officials time to investigate and consider a settlement.

Gucciardo filed a separate motion requesting permission to file a late notice of claim against Suffolk because he believes Stewart is a county employee. The blue SUV that allegedly hit Vazquez either belonged to the county or the fire department, he said. The judge has not yet issued a ruling on that request.  Michael Martino, a spokesman for Suffolk County Executive Edward P. Romaine, declined to comment.

It is against New York State law to leave the scene of an accident  when someone is injured.

"If Mr. Stewart had complied with Vehicle and Traffic law § 600 (2) (a), Ms. Vazquez would have known the identity of the driver and the owner of the vehicle, and she could and would have timely served a notice of claim on all parties entitled to such notice," Gucciardo wrote in the court papers. "However, Mr. Stewart and FFD made it impossible for her to do so."

The Farmingville fire video begins at 9:46 a.m., with the blue SUV parking in a spot in the rear of the firehouse. The image appears frozen for more than four minutes, and then jumps to 9:51 a.m. The image freezes again for several minutes. The driver’s door open slightly at 9:51, but the video freezes again. The driver is never seen exiting the car and his face is not visible in the video.

At 10:16 a.m., Vazquez pulled into the parking lot and parked her vehicle. At the same time, the driver of the SUV returned and climbed into the blue SUV. Although the back of the driver’s body is visible in the video, his face is not.

Vazquez walked toward the building as the driver backed out of the parking spot at 10:19 a.m. In the video, the SUV appeared to strike Vazquez. Witnesses rushed to her aid. Farmingville fire personnel put Vazquez in an ambulance and take her to NYU Langone Suffolk Hospital, according to court documents and Gucciardo.

"The driver left the scene without providing identification or insurance information," Gucciardo said in court documents. "As a result, plaintiff’s counsel had to undertake an investigation to ascertain the identity of the driver and the titled owner of the vehicle."

According to a Farmingville incident report, Vazquez told fire department personnel she was trying to dodge the SUV when she was injured.

"Patient states that she had to move out of the way of a car that was approaching her to avoid getting hit by it," the report said.

Farmingville fire personnel tried to get Vazquez to sign the report, Gucciardo said, but she refused. 

Vazquez told Christensen she believed she was hit by a person of importance at the firehouse, not only because he was parked in a space reserved for chiefs and commissioners, but because of the way Farmingville personnel at the scene reacted, Gucciardo said.

"Please pray for me," Vazquez wrote in a text to her prayer group, according to the lawyer. "I was hit by a car."

Vazquez was still hospitalized when she contacted Suffolk police the day after the incident, according to a police report, to document it for insurance purposes. In that April 10, 2025, report, Officer Eric Kennedy said Vazquez told him she tripped and fell while dodging the blue SUV in the parking lot.

Gucciardo said Kennedy’s report inaccurately repeated the fire department’s version of events.

Kennedy "actually was dictating to her what happened," Gucciardo said. "It seemed apparent that this was a prefabricated rendition of the facts."

After Gucciardo obtained the video from the Farmingville Fire Department in September, he took it to the Suffolk County Police Department’s Sixth Precinct, where Vazquez was injured. Officers there told him he had to go to the Fifth Precinct, because that is where NYU Langone Suffolk is located and that is where Kennedy prepared his report.

Officers at the Fifth told him to return to the Sixth, Gucciardo said. 

"I’m getting a shell game," the attorney said.

An officer eventually contacted Gucciardo, telling him he had to speak to Vazquez to pursue the issue. But Vazquez was dying of cancer and the interview never took place.

Gucciardo said he contacted Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney’s Office. The district attorney's office did not respond to his inquiry, the lawyer said, adding he was later contacted by an investigator from the police department’s Internal Affairs Bureau. The Suffolk County Police Department declined to comment for this story.

Newsday reporters visited the Farmingville Fire Department recently to discuss allegations in the court papers. Fire department members asked a reporter to slide a business card under the door and said he would ask a chief or commissioner — including Stewart — to contact Newsday. Nobody called back.

Gucciardo said he visited the Farmingville firehouse in October, about a week before Vazquez died, and showed the video to Commissioner John Caputo. Caputo said he knew nothing about the incident in the firehouse parking lot. Other fire officials told him they were unfamiliar with the incident or refused to talk to Gucciardo.

"I couldn’t get anything. ‘I know nothing. I know nothing.’ Like Sgt. Schultz," Gucciardo said, referring to the "Hogan’s Heroes" character. " 'I know nothing."