GARDEN CITY, NY - Retired Town of Fallsburg Judge Isaac Kantrowitz now has a date with the Department of Motor Vehicles in the mandated Fatal Crash Hearing that was postponed multiple times before and after the Covid-19 pandemic hit.
But now it's back on the calendar for October 7 at the DMV office in Garden City, NY. Kantrowitz struck and killed two teenagers on June 2, 2019 on Glen Wild Road in Rock Hill. His driver's license was suspended in July 2019. The Administrative Law Judge is Maria Sotolongo, who coincidentally just lost a federal lawsuit on July 22 alleging that her employer, the DMV, had created a hostile work environment and that supervisors had retaliated against her for filing a lawsuit.
Late last month, a Sullivan County grand jury indicted the 87-year-old former Woodridge trustee on one count of reckless driving (an unclassified misdemeanor) and two other Vehicle and Traffic Law violations, including speeding.
Acting District Attorney Meagan Galligan has told the public that Kantrowitz was going 62 mph in the 45 mph zone but New York State Police investigator documents revealed by The SullivanTimes showed that he was in fact going 70 mph right before impact.
Former District Attorney Steven Lungen was representing Kantrowitz at the DMV hearing originally scheduled for late 2019. He is also representing him in an future court date on the grand jury indictment charges.
Galligan has said repeatedly that the laws on the books and the facts in this case constrained her ability to seek more serious charges against Kantrowitz. But the families of the victims have disagreed with that assessment.
As previously reported by The SullivanTimes, Kantrowitz was involved in multiple accidents - three involving pedestrians - from 2016 through 2019.
(Soon after the June 2, 2019 tragedy, then-District Attorney Jim Farrell said he had no idea about the previous incidents. Farrell, elected last November to County Court Judge, took no action in the Kantrowitz matter in his final months as DA and repeated that he had to wait for the final State Police report. Yet, in November 2019, then-County Court Judge Michael McGuire first signed a search warrant for Kantrowitz's vehicle as well as other personal property. That document was published by this media outlet last month. )
One of the pedestrians was seriously injured and later settled a significant lawsuit with Kantrowitz's insurance company. Coincidentally, that incident also occurred on Glen Wild Road but located in Fallsburg.
And, in interviews with The SullivanTimes, two victims who were involved in accidents with Kantrowitz (one a driver of another vehicle and another a pedestrian in front of Shoprite in Liberty) , both said that he showed no concern for their well-being in the immediate aftermath of those collisions.
BELOW: The SullivanTimes' previous, exclusive coverage of the DMV Fatal Crash Hearings regarding Kantrowitz.
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