Nassau cops make first Leandra's Law arrest

Just hours after New Year's Eve, Nassau County police made their first arrest under Leandra's Law, the new state statute that makes it a felony to drive drunk with a child as a passenger.

The arrest happened in Bellerose Village Friday at about 5:45 a.m. with a 9-year-old girl in the backseat of a 2003 Nissan Pathfinder and an allegedly drunk 30-year-old named Raul Rodriguez in the driver's seat, police said.

"The vehicle's occupants included the defendant's girlfriend and her 9-year-old daughter who were released at the scene," police said in a statement.

In addition to the new felony, Rodriguez, of 65 Brooklyn Ave., Wyandanch, was charged with driving while intoxicated along with three traffic offenses, police said.

Police said Rodriguez is to be arraigned Saturday at First District Court in Hempstead.

Leandra's Law went into effect last month. It is named after an 11-year-old named Leandra Rosado of Manhattan, who died in an October crash in which her friend's mother was charged with drunken driving.

Meanwhile, Suffolk and Nassau police arrested more than 50 motorists on drunken driving charges on New Year's Eve night into Friday morning, authorities said.

Nassau police made 29 driving while intoxicated arrests from 11 p.m. Thursday through 9 a.m. Friday, Commissioner Lawrence Mulvey said in a news release.

Suffolk police made 28 DWI arrests between 4 p.m. Thursday and 8 a.m. Friday, a police spokeswoman said.

By MATTHEW CHAYES
Posted Friday, January 1, 2010

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