Andrew Reyes was behind the wheel of an FBI-issued vehicle with its emergency lights flashing on February 3 when, according to a federal indictment unsealed November 5, he drove the wrong way down Ocean Parkway in Brooklyn, went through a red light at Beverley Road and struck a pedestrian. Prosecutors say Reyes then dragged the unconscious man out of the street, set a bag beside him on a bench and drove away without calling for medical help or reporting the crash.
Reyes, 30, of Brooklyn, is listed in court papers as a former FBI special agent. He was arrested the morning the indictment was unsealed and scheduled to be arraigned that afternoon before U.S. Magistrate Judge Clay H. Kaminsky. amNY New York reported that bail was set at $100,000, secured by assets his parents put up. His attorney, Federal Public Defender Nora Hirozawa, told The Associated Press that he would plead not guilty and declined further comment. These are allegations, and Reyes is presumed innocent.
The indictment charges a civil rights violation and false statements
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York charged Reyes with willfully depriving an individual of constitutional rights while acting under color of law, and with making false statements. The false-statement count comes from a later interview: prosecutors say investigators asked whether he had ever hit a person with his FBI vehicle without reporting it, and he said he had not. The case is docketed as 26-CR-306. The Justice Department’s Office of the Inspector General investigated, and the release credits the NYPD, the department’s Civil Rights Division and the FBI’s New York Field Office.
The release lists a maximum sentence of 10 years. It does not say which constitutional right prosecutors contend was violated, and I could not find the indictment itself on a public docket, so that part of the theory is unconfirmed. The statute behind the first count, 18 U.S.C. § 242, carries a base maximum of one year and rises to 10 years when the violation results in bodily injury, the tier that matches the figure in the release. “Under color of law” covers conduct by someone using authority the government gave them. How prosecutors tie a crash to that authority is not laid out in the release or in the AP report.
What New York lets an emergency driver do
New York’s Vehicle and Traffic Law gives drivers of authorized emergency vehicles real latitude. Section 1104 lets them pass a red light after slowing as necessary and disregard rules on the direction of travel, but only during an emergency operation. Except for police vehicles, the privileges also depend on an audible signal and a red lamp visible from 500 feet. Subdivision (e) keeps the duty to drive with due regard for the safety of all persons, and it says the privileges do not protect a driver from the consequences of reckless disregard.
That makes the lights a condition of the privilege, and it makes the open question what, if anything, Reyes was responding to. Neither the release nor the AP report says. Flashing lights on a federal agent’s car are a signal drivers are trained to obey; The Auto Wire reported last month on a Virginia driver who said an officer claiming to be FBI pulled her over for the left lane.
The duty to stop and report applies to every driver
Under Vehicle and Traffic Law § 600, a driver who knows or has cause to know that someone was injured in a crash involving their vehicle must stop and give their name, address, license and insurance information to the injured person if practical and to a police officer. If no officer is nearby, the driver must report to the nearest police station or judicial officer as soon as physically able. Leaving after an injury is a class A misdemeanor, and when the injury is a serious physical injury as the Penal Law defines it, the offense is a class E felony with a fine of $1,000 to $5,000.
The privileges listed in § 1104 cover stopping and parking, red lights, speed and direction of travel. As written, they do not include leaving. The federal charges described in the release do not include a state hit-and-run count, and the documents I found do not say whether state prosecutors are involved.
What happens next
Reyes’s case is before a federal judge in Brooklyn under 26-CR-306, and no trial date has been reported. The victim has not been identified. The U.S. attorney’s release describes him as severely injured, and AP reported that his condition was not known. The bureau did not immediately respond to AP’s questions about Reyes’s employment history and status. U.S. Attorney Joseph Nocella Jr. said in the release that “no one is above the law.” The next filings to watch are the defense’s response to the indictment and whether the court sets a trial date.
If an on-duty officer or agent with emergency lights on hits someone and leaves, should prosecutors reach for a federal civil rights charge, or is state hit-and-run law enough?