By Brian Zanzonico
Blue and white candles bearing the image of the Blessed Mother, a skinny bottle of chardonnay and bunches of flowers dot the ground at the spot where a life was taken, and so many were changed.
West Hempstead resident Anthony Galjanic, Jr, 23, died on Tuesday, June 7, a day after being hit on his motorcycle by an alleged drunk driver who was once a Nassau County assistant district attorney.
Police said Galjanic was riding his 2004 Yamaha motorcycle westbound on Hempstead Turnpike in West Hempstead at about 5 p.m. on June 6 when he collided with a 1993 Cadillac Deville driven by Robert Clarey, 62, who was heading eastbound on Hempstead Turnpike and tried to make a left onto Cherry Valley Avenue. Clarey struck the motorcycle, throwing Galjanic 35 feet. The motorcycle landed 75 feet away on Cherry Valley Avenue and sent debris flying into Jonathan Miodownik, 20, also of West Hempstead, who was standing on the northwest corner of the intersection, cutting his forehead and legs.
Police said Clarey, of Garden City South, fled the scene but was arrested a short time later by Police Officer Mark Casella on Cherry Valley Avenue less than a mile north of Hempstead Turnpike.
Galjanic sustained massive head trauma and was taken by Nassau County Police Department ambulance to Winthrop-University Hospital in Mineola where he was rushed into surgery. He died the next day.
Miodownik was brought to Mercy Medical Center where he was treated and released. He could not be reached for comment.
Clarey, an attorney with a private practice in Williston Park, was charged with leaving the scene of an accident with serious physical injury or death, an E felony, and DWI and was arraigned in First District Court in Hempstead June 7 and posted $2,500 bail. He was slated to appear in county court last Wednesday, but it was adjourned until June 16. Clarey, who is representing himself in the case, could not be reached for comment.
"This is a really difficult time for my parents and I," said Galjanic's sister, Jaclyn, outside the family's home.
A neighbor remembered Galjanic as a caring person who was always willing to lend a hand. A graduate of West Hempstead High School, Galjanic was pursuing a career in construction.
"He never went inside [his house] without saying hello," the neighbor said.
One man who knew Galjanic from his days as a butcher's apprentice in a local market couldn't believe it when he heard about the accident.
"I must've been in and out of that store a thousand times and he was always very nice, always had a smile on his face," said Joe Greco. "It's tragic because here you have a lawyer who knows the law. Why not get into a cab?"
Nassau County District Attorney spokeswoman Katie Grilli-Robles said because Clarey worked in District Attorney Denis Dillon's office up until 1981, the county decided to call in a special prosecutor to try the case. According to Suffolk County District Attorney's Office spokesman Bob Clifford, Todd Pettigrew from Suffolk's major crimes bureau will prosecute.
Clifford said he could recall only one other time in recent memory when one of the counties had to ask the other for a special prosecutor: the infamous Lizzie Grubman case from a few years back.
Posted just above the letter at the makeshift memorial - girlfriend Krissy's thank you note to Galjanic for their life together - is a photo of the young couple. In the week since the memorial was built, pedestrians pause, read Krissy's words and walk away shaking their heads. It serves as a reminder: A life, and love, has ended prematurely.
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