The New Jersey Attorney General’s office is conducting a review into the handling of a 2018 fatal car wreck involving the wife of Sen. Bob Menendez, the then-Nadine Arslanian, NBC News and The New York Times reported.
The scrutiny by the AG’s public integrity unit is focusing on how police and local prosecutors handled the accident at the time. Officials from the state AG’s office seized records from Bergen County law enforcement agencies on Thursday, according to the Times.
Richard Koop of Bogota, New Jersey, was killed when Arslanian slammed her black Mercedes-Benz sedan into him as he crossed the street in front of his residence on Dec. 12, 2018. She was allowed to leave without submitting to a field sobriety test or being questioned about drinking or drug use, the source of the AG’s review, according to the reports.
Police said Koop was jaywalking and had marijuana and alcohol in his system. But an attorney for the Koop family has been advocating for fresh scrutiny.
Arslanian "did nothing to come and render any aid. She moved her car out of the way but she never came, for the entire length of the video that I was given, she never came to look at him, didn't even ... check to see if he’s alive," attorney Sheri Breen said.
The review comes mere days after the accident was reported publicly for the first time.
The report also comes the same day as a report that a retired New Jersey policeman, who was once a chief of detectives, helped usher then-Sen. Bob Menendez’s girlfriend away from the scene of the fatal car wreck.
The New York Post reported Friday that Michael Mordaga, a former director of the Hackensack Police Department, was on the scene within minutes of the accident to help Arslanian collect her belongings and leave her totaled car behind.
Arslanian was not charged in the Dec. 12 accident, but the incident is part of a federal corruption indictment involving her, Menendez, and three New Jersey businessmen. A month later, the indictment alleges that Menendez called a prosecutor in the N.J. Attorney General’s office to say to go easy on an associate of co-defendant Jose Uribe, who would then agree to finance a replacement car for Arslanian, a $60,000 Mercedes-Benz convertible. Prosecutors allege Uribe gave Arslanian $15,000 as a down payment and continued making payments on the car.
The night of the accident, the Post reports that Aslanian didn’t call 911 until after the police were on the scene and refused to allow a search of her cellphone. A witness overheard Arslanian say she was going to call someone for help, according to the report.
Mordaga showed up with a friend of Arslanian’s, the Post reported.
“I don’t even know her,” Mordaga is heard saying off-dashcam footage to police on the scene, according to the Post. “That’s my buddy’s wife who’s friends with her. He said could you do me a favor and take her up there because her friend just got in a car accident.”