Alleged Drunk Driver Held With out Bail After Deadly Fourth of July Crash

The alleged drunk driver accused of mowing down 11 individuals at a Fourth of July celebration on the Decrease East Facet was ordered held with out bail Saturday. Substance abuse counselor Daniel Christopher Hyden faces 25 years or extra behind bars on three counts of vehicular murder for the grotesque crash which left three individuals useless and eight others harm.

Prosecutors introduced compelling proof, together with images of the injury allegedly brought on by Hyden’s pickup truck. Manhattan Assistant District Lawyer Matt Bogdanos, throughout the arraignment earlier than Choose Robert Mandelbaum, displayed photographs of the carnage, stating, “That injury is from placing 11 human beings.”

Hyden, 44, appeared in courtroom with a visibly swollen face, protecting his head down all through the continuing. Lab outcomes to find out his blood alcohol content material are nonetheless pending, as Hyden refused breathalyzer exams after the crash and allegedly saved his eyes closed to hide his bloodshot eyes.

Hyden, recognized for his e-book “The Sober Addict,” had portrayed himself as a well-meaning substance abuse counselor and a constructive instance for these battling habit. Nonetheless, legislation enforcement sources revealed that Hyden had engaged in a struggle with a bouncer at a downtown bar on Thursday evening after being denied entry resulting from his intoxicated state. The bouncer refunded his ticket to the Fourth of July get together and despatched him away roughly an hour earlier than the deadly crash occurred at close by Corlears Hook Park.

In keeping with the police, Hyden is accused of driving a grey Ford F-150 by the Water Avenue and Jackson Avenue intersection, plowing over the sidewalk and into the group celebrating the vacation within the park simply earlier than 9 p.m. Surveillance footage captured the truck dashing down the road with none indicators of slowing down on the intersection. The automobile jumped the curb and crashed by a fence, persevering with its damaging path, sending sparks into the air because it hurtled in the direction of the unsuspecting victims.

Tragically, the collision claimed the lives of Lucille Pinkney, 59, and her son Herman Pinkney, 38, who resided close to the crash scene, in addition to Ana Morel, 43. Among the many eight injured have been Herman’s longtime girlfriend Jessica Pellot and her 11-year-old son, Jakob Velazquez, who kinfolk say has been deeply affected by the lack of his father determine.

Hyden, a former New Jersey resident who presently resides in The Bronx, has a historical past of prior arrests in New York Metropolis and a prolonged rap sheet that extends to Wisconsin.