A truck driver who witnessed the 2021 crash that took the life of NYPD Det. Anastasios Tsakos testified Monday that he saw the car driven by an alleged drunken driver strike the highway cop on the LIE in Queens and catapult him more than 150 feet.
In sometimes emotional testimony in Queens State Supreme Court, Daniel Miller, 46, who works for a New Jersey trucking company, described how on the night of April 27, 2021, he was preparing to exit the expressway eastbound at Exit 26 when he noticed a dark sedan to his left “flying by me, moving really fast, kind of driving erratically” and doing about 60 mph.
An instant later, Miller testified, the car, which prosecutors said was driven by Jessica Beauvais of Hempstead, made an abrupt right hand turn from a left Long Island Expressway lane and struck Tsakos, of East Northport, who was standing by a police car stationed to divert all eastbound traffic due to a previous accident east at Exit 27.
A truck driver Monday described in court witnessing NYPD Det. Anastasios Tsakos get hit on the LIE by a sedan that police said was driven by Jessica Beauvais of Hempstead.
Credit: NYPD
Beauvais, 34, is on trial before Judge Michael Aloise on charges of vehicular manslaughter, drunken driving and leaving the scene of the accident, as well as driving with a suspended license. She faces up to 15 years in prison on the top charge of second-degree aggravated manslaughter, as well as other possible sentences added on for the other offenses.
Miller said he was on the road about 1:55 a.m. making deliveries to stops in Queens and Great Neck when he saw the collision that sent Tsakos “flying through the air.”
After pulling off the highway at the exit ramp, Miller said he ran over to the broken body of Tsakos and quickly realized the situation was fatal.
Tsakos, a married father of two, “was in very bad shape, face down, one of his legs was missing. He obviously looked like he was passed,” recalled…
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