Judge sentences drunken driver who hit cop to 7 years

Saying that it cannot compare to the "life sentence" that Rahiem Griffin imposed on a police officer who he crashed into while driving drunk, a Nassau judge Wednesday sentenced Griffin to 7 years in prison.

"This man will not be able to play baseball with his son. He will not be able to pursue his career. That is what you destroyed that day," Judge Jerald Carter said, holding a photo of Nassau Police Officer Kenneth Baribault, who has been severely brain damaged and partially paralyzed since the May 2008 crash on the Long Island Expressway.

Carter said that while he empathizes with Griffin, who will be away from his own three young children for the next seven years, the reality is that when Griffin gets out of prison he will still be able to play ball with his son and take his daughter to a movie.

Griffin, 28, of Shirley, was convicted of second-degree reckless assault after a jury trial last month.

Griffin was returning home after a night out with friends in the Bronx when he crashed into Baribault. The officer had stopped on the side of the Long Island Expressway in Plainview after pulling over another suspected drunken driver.

At trial, prosecutor Maureen McCormick told the jury that Griffin didn't care whom he hurt when he drove into the city on a suspended license that night, had several drinks at a nightclub, and then headed 60 miles home without sleeping.

She said Griffin even continued to drink on his drive home, leaving an orange juice bottle containing alcohol outside his wrecked Mercedes-Benz.

In his testimony, Griffin conceded that he had a suspended license and had had too much to drink to drive safely. But he denied drinking on the road and said he had sincerely believed he was OK to drive. He said he should not be convicted of reckless assault.

By ANN GIVENS (Newsday)
Posted Wednesday, July 22, 2009

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