Driver from Uniondale charged under Leandra's Law

A Uniondale man was charged with driving while intoxicated under Leandra's Law after police said they found him drunk with a 2-year-old in his car during a traffic stop.

Nassau County police said officers arrested Jose A. Escobar, 31, of Hempstead Boulevard, after his vehicle was pulled over at 5:45 p.m. Sunday in Hicksville.

Police said Escobar was intoxicated - and that a 2-year-old girl was in the 1999 Mitsubishi. She was released to her mother, police said.

The law was named for Leandra Rosado, 11, who was killed in a crash on the Henry Hudson Parkway in Manhattan after a minivan driven by a friend's drunken mother overturned.

Last November Gov. David A. Paterson signed the law making it an automatic felony on first offense to drive drunk in New York with a passenger under 15 in the vehicle.

Escobar was charged with aggravated driving while intoxicated under Leandra's Law, as well as with endangering the welfare of a child and DWI, police said.

He is scheduled for arraignment Monday in First District Court in Hempstead.