Cops: Father slapped son, drove while intoxicated

A Massapequa man was arrested and charged with driving while intoxicated under Leandra's Law after Nassau County police officers saw the car he was driving weaving in Marjorie Post Park on Unqua Road Wednesday.

Police said witnesses had reported seeing Carlo Guercia, 35, of Delta Road, leave his infant son unattended and then slap his 3-year-old son in the face, grab him by the neck, shake him and tell him to "shut up" before placing the children in his vehicle and attempting to leave the park. Responding officers spotted the car "weaving from left to right" as it headed towards the park exit, initiated a traffic stop and found Guercia "unsteady on his feet" and "unable to maintain his balance" once he exited the car, police said. Police said Guercia then failed standard field sobriety tests and was arrested.

Police said officers recovered two Oxycodone pills from inside the vehicle.

The children were uninjured, police said, and were released to the custody of family members.

The incident took place at 1:15 p.m.

Guercia was charged with two counts of aggravated driving while intoxicated under Leandra's Law, which makes it an automatic felony, even on first offense, to drive with children under age 16 in the vehicle. The law is named for 11-year-old Leandra Rosado, who was killed when a sport utility vehicle in which she and seven other children were riding overturned on the Henry Hudson Parkway in Manhattan in October, 2009. The driver, the mother of Rosado's friend, was driving drunk at the time, police said. Rosado was the lone person killed. Her father championed the new law.

Guercia, meanwhile, also was charged with seventh-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance, three counts of endangering the welfare of a child, driving while ability impaired by drugs, failure to maintain his travel lane and with driving an uninsured motor vehicle. He is scheduled for arraignment Thursday in First District Court in Hempstead.

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