Summary: A judge in New York state tried to use his position to beat charges from a hit-and-run accident that also involved DUI.
A liquored-up judge who decided to drive home from a Christmas party crashed his Jaguar XJL into a car in Midtown New York and then fled the scene, according to The New York Post.
The judge then tried to use his position on the bench to get out of the crime.
Marc Lust, 62, is a justice for the town of Harrison in Westchester. He told officers, “Come on. I’m a judge. I’ll take care of this. I’ll take care of it. We don’t have to do anything about this. I was at a Christmas party. I only had three drinks.”
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Lust crashed into a 2010 Acura owned by Michael Antonicello at 10th Avenue and 34th Street at 5:16 p.m. when the two vehicles were at a red light.
According to court documents, the Jaguar hit the Acura so hard that the bumper of the Acura fell off the vehicle.
“I looked over at [the judge], and he’s looking straight ahead. He’s not even acknowledging me,’’ Antonicello said. Antonicello is from Ridgewood, New Jersey.
“I tried to flag him down, and he guns it. I thought, ‘Wow, this guy must be really drunk. He just smashed into my car,’ ” Antonicello said.
“I followed him for a block and a half, and I got in front of him. I had to turn to get in front of him to make him stop. He didn’t even pull over, he stopped in the middle of an intersection. I had to help him out, and he fell. That’s when I realized how drunk he was he was . . . He kept saying, ‘We can work this out.’”
Antonicello also told The Post, “He didn’t know where he was. “Thank God I’m alive . . . This guy could have ended my life.”
Lust was found smelling of booze, pale and wobbly while slurring his words. He did not take a Breathalyzer test.
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“What should I do? What would you do?” Lust asked an officer when he was transported to a precinct.
“I f- -ked up. I really f- -ked up,” he said some four hours after the accident.
Lust is facing charges of operating a motor vehicle while intoxicated, leaving the scene of an accident and operating a motor vehicle while impaired. All of the charges are misdemeanors.
“It appears the defendant was seriously intoxicated and made multiple efforts to flee the scene after colliding with the witness’s car,” Assistant District Attorney Karl Mulloney told the judge at Lust’s arraignment Saturday.
“He then attempted to use his position apparently as a judge in order to evade responsibility for his actions.”
The district attorney’s office asked for a fine of $2,000, 15 days in prison, a one-year license suspension and a DWI program for Lust.
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Image credit: New York Post