Nassau D.A. backs Heidgen conviction

The Nassau County District Attorney’s office filed a brief on Sept. 22 in support of the 2006 murder conviction of Martin Heidgen, the Valley Stream man found guilty after a 2005 drunken-driving collision on the Meadowbrook Parkway that killed two people. The brief comes several months after Heidgen and his attorney, Jill Harrington, filed an appeal to overturn the conviction.

“The case is now before the New York State Supreme Court’s Appellate Division, Second Department, and we have no further comment at this time,” said Carole Trottere, a spokeswoman for District Attorney Kathleen Rice.

Heidgen, 29, was sentenced to 18 years to life after driving north in the southbound lanes of the Meadowbrook Parkway early on the morning of July 2, 2005, and crashing head-on into a limousine taking members of the Flynn and Tangney families home to Long Beach from a family wedding. Seven-year-old Katie Flynn and the limousine’s driver, Stanley Rabinowitz, 59, of Farmingdale, were killed in the crash.

Prosecutors pushed for and got a murder conviction. The appeal, filed in April, argued that prosecutors failed to prove that Heidgen acted with “depraved indifference to human life,” and focused on statements about blood evidence tampering and jury misconduct that Harrington believes stood in the way of a fair trial.

“The court made a tremendous error in reversing its own decision to admit blood into evidence,” Harrington told the Herald in June. “We are confident that the conviction will be reversed. I truly believe that Marty was convicted of the wrong crime.”

But Rice was not buying the argument, and countered with her own 100-page brief last month. In an effort to affirm the trial verdict, Rice addressed each of Harrington’s five points, arguing against a reversed conviction and new trial.

Rice argued that the evidence was legally sufficient to establish Heidgen’s guilt of “depraved indifference murder,” on the grounds that he was consciously aware of driving several miles in the wrong direction and took no corrective action. According to the brief, prosecutors said that Heidgen’s blood was legally tested and the court exercised discretion when it ordered Heidgen’s DNA tested in the middle of the trial.

In addition, Rice responded to Harrington’s point that the trial court made an error when State Police Sgt. Scott Crawford’s testimony as an accident reconstructionist was thrown out. Rice said that the court’s refusal to qualify Crawford as an expert in accident reconstruction was “justified and proper.”

Despite Rice’s fierce objections, Harrington remains confident that the court will reverse its decision. “The district attorney’s brief does not change our belief that this case will be reversed by the appellate court,” Harrington said. “The arguments put forth by the D.A. are just excuses for errors made from the beginning to the end of this case. We expect that the court will recognize that and reverse Marty’s conviction.”

Harrington is currently working on a reply brief to submit to the appellate court.