Probe into carjack suspect probation report
Edwin Flores is facing several charges in connection with a carjacking and car chase that ended when another man crashed into the wall of a North Merrick elementary school, police said. (March 21, 2012) Credit: NCPD
Nassau District Attorney Kathleen Rice is investigating whether a supervisor in the county probation department failed to file a report that a man later arrested in an armed carjacking had violated his probation.
Jerry Laricchiuta, president of the Nassau Civil Service Employees Union, said at a news conference Monday that the supervisor tossed a March 5 report detailing numerous violations by Edwin Flores and then ordered the officer to sign off on a new report last Wednesday, the day after Flores, 20, of Hicksville, was arrested. The violations would have been enough to put Flores, on probation for gang assault, back in jail, he said.
"If you get violated, you're sent to a judge and you are arrested," Laricchiuta said.
John Byrne, a spokesman for Rice, confirmed the probe. John Fowle, who heads the Nassau Probation Department, did not return a call or an email seeking comment.
Prosecutors said Flores and Remick X. Menjivar, 18, of Freeport, took a 2006 Infiniti at gunpoint from a man in Hicksville on March 21. Flores drove away in another stolen car and Manjivar later crashed the Infiniti into a wall at the Harold Fayette Elementary School in North Merrick as he tried to elude police, prosecutors said. They are both being held without bail.
Three officers were injured as they tried to arrest Menjivar.
"If the process had been followed through like it should have been, this might not have happened," said James Carver, president of the Nassau Police Benevolent Association, who attended the news conference.
Laricchiuta said the probation officer, whom he did not name, originally wrote that Flores had violated probation by missing appointments, failing to attend anger management courses and consorting with gang members.But on March 22, the day after Flores was arrested, the officer's supervisor ordered her to sign another report suggesting that Flores had been previously cited for "absconding" -- just failing to show up for probation meetings, said Laricchiuta.
Flores' defense lawyer, Stuart Austin, of Mineola, said he was not aware of the allegations.
Updated now Newsday travel writer Scott Vogel took the ferry over to Block Island for a weekend of fun.
Updated now Newsday travel writer Scott Vogel took the ferry over to Block Island for a weekend of fun.
