Woman sentenced to 2 to 6 years in prison in DWI crash

A Lynbrook woman who pleaded guilty to manslaughter and drunken driving in a 2009 crash that killed an East Rockaway man was sentenced to 2 to 6 years in prison Wednesday.

Patricia Bregel, 35, apologized to the family of victim Timothy J. Motherway in a statement she read in court. More than a dozen relatives gathered in the courtroom of Acting Supreme Court Judge Alan Honoroff for the sentencing in the March 2009 crash.

"I never meant to hurt anybody and I am so sorry for the pain I have caused everyone involved," Bregel said.

Nassau County sheriffs deputies put Bregel in handcuffs and took her from the courtroom after the sentencing.

Her attorney, Salvatore J. Marinello of Mineola, said that his client had already served three months in jail as she awaited sentencing and will appeal the sentence.

Honoroff sentenced Bregel to minimum of 2 years for manslaughter, 2 years for vehicular manslaughter and 1 year for driving while intoxicated. The prison time will run concurrently, he said.

Peggy Motherway, the victim's mother, told the judge before the sentencing Wednesday that her son died alone because of Bregel's actions.

"She gets to come home," Peggy Motherway said. "Tim never gets to come home. He's gone forever."

Motherway, 35, who worked as a cable television installer for Cablevision, which owns Newsday, was making a left turn into the parking lot of his apartment building on Atlantic Avenue in East Rockaway when the crash happened, police said.

He died at a hospital about 2:50 a.m., a few hours after the crash, police said.