Nassau explores legal options after $19M verdict to crash victim
Nassau County Executive Laura Curran at the Cradle of Aviation Museum in Garden City on March 28. Credit: Newsday/Thomas A. Ferrara
Nassau County faces a $19 million judgment after a jury found the county and a motorist liable in connection with a 2014 collision that left a motorcyclist seriously injured.
The suit from Roni Kota, 55, of Port Washington, said the county should have installed a traffic light at a busy Port Washington intersection where he was struck by a car in 2014. A jury last week ruled against the county and the driver, Erin M. Reilly, for the crash at Shore Road and Harbor Road in Port Washington. Last week a jury awarded Kota $4 million for past pain and suffering, and $15 million for future pain and suffering. Kota's left leg was amputated, below his knee, after the crash, said his attorney, David Dean of Manhattan.
The verdict is among several hefty, unbudgeted judgments threatening the county's precarious finances. In February, Nassau County paid a $45 million legal judgment to Dennis Halstead and John Restivo in a wrongful imprisonment case after serving 18 years in jail. The two were exonerated, along with another man, for the 1984 rape and murder of 16-year-old Theresa Fusco, of Lynbrook.
On Wednesday, a county legislative committee approved a $25 million settlement with the family of Nicollette Iacone, of Oceanside, 11 years after a car accident left her with a traumatic brain injury. She was 17 in 2007 when the car she was driving collided with another driver, Salvatore Passanisi, who later pleaded guilty to driving while intoxicated. Iacone's suit alleged the county failed to maintain the Oceanside intersection where the crash occurred. Hedges, an electrical box, and signage blocked the view of the intersection, the suit said.
Koti's lawyer, Dean, said the county has received complaints about the intersection and that previous county traffic studies were inadequate.
Kota was driving north on Shore Road when he collided with Reilly, who was driving in the opposite direction, Dean said. Kota, now 55, lived in Port Washington with his family, and commuted to Manhattan on his motorcycle for a construction job.
“It’s a real county screw up, and the jury understood it right away,” Dean said in an interview Thursday.
Karen Contino, a Nassau County spokeswoman, said, "The county cannot comment on pending litigation and is exploring its options."
County Executive Laura Curran earlier this week announced a "comprehensive assessment of traffic information" and criticized past staffing reductions in the Department of Public Works. Curran, who took office Jan. 1, has funded new positions in that department in her 2019 budget proposal, including professional engineers in the traffic engineering unit.
Scott Eidler is a deputy editor for the towns department at Newsday. Scott has worked at Newsday since 2012 and previously covered municipal government and education.
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