Police: Officer injured by DWI driver

A Mount Sinai man who authorities said was drunk when he rear-ended a Suffolk County police patrol car in Commack on Thursday night was jailed on $20,000 bail at court Friday.

Russell Schaefer, 28, was driving a 1989 Ford pickup east on Jericho Turnpike west of Commack Road about 9:52 p.m. when he hit the Second Precinct patrol car, a police spokesman said.

The officer had activated the car's lights and siren and was slowing down to make a traffic stop when the pickup Schaefer was driving hit the patrol car, a police spokeswoman said.

Both Schaefer and the officer were treated and released from nearby hospitals for minor injuries, police said. Schaefer went to St. Catherine of Siena Medical Center in Smithtown, the officer to Huntington Hospital.

The spokeswoman said police were not releasing the name of the officer, whose injuries were non-life-threatening. But a law enforcement source Friday afternoon identified the officer as Matthew Angello.

According to court records, Schaefer had slurred speech, glassy, bloodshot eyes, and the odor of alcohol on his breath.

A voluntary blood sample testing for intoxication was taken from Schaefer at Saint Catherine of Siena Hospital in Smithtown, a prosecutor said. The test results weren't available Friday.

At Schaefer's arraignment before Judge Patricia M. Filiberto of First District Court in Central Islip, Schaefer pleaded not guilty through his court-appointed attorney, Michael Petruzziello.

It was not clear whether Schaefer would post the $20,000 bail. The prosecutor, Amy Muller, had asked Filiberto to set bail at $50,000.

The police spokeswoman confirmed that the damaged car, No. 222, was put in service about two years ago to replace the Second Precinct cruiser driven by Officer Glen Ciano.

Ciano was killed in the line of duty in February 2009 when a drunken driver hit his car, No. 218, which slammed into a pole and burst into flames.

"Any time an officer is struck is a reminder of how dangerous this job can be," the spokeswoman said.

Schaefer is charged with driving while intoxicated and traffic offenses.