SUFFOLK COUNTY SHERIFF’S OFFICE LEANDRA’S LAW DWI ARREST

Date: March 19, 2022

For Immediate Release:

SUFFOLK COUNTY SHERIFF’S OFFICE LEANDRA’S LAW DWI ARREST

***** Intoxicated Driver with a Ten-Month Old Infant in the Backseat

*****

(RIVERHEAD, NY) On 03/19/2022 at approximately 12:03 AM, Suffolk County Sheriff’s Deputies stopped a car on North Ocean Avenue, south of the Long Island Expressway for failure to maintain lane. The driver, Maria Carballo, 29, of Patchogue, NY, was found to be intoxicated. In the rear of the vehicle, in an infant car seat, was the only other occupant, Ms. Carballo's ten-month old son. Ms. Carballo was arrested for Leandra's Law DWI and Endangering the Welfare of a Child. She consented to a blood test. The results of the blood test are pending from the Crime Lab. The infant was released into the custody of his father who came to the scene and the vehicle was impounded as evidence.

Maria Carballo

Leandra’s Law (the Child Passenger Protection Act) is a NYS law making it an automatic felony on the first offense to drive drunk with a person age 15 or younger inside the vehicle. It was named after 11 year-old Leandra Rosado who was killed on the Henry Hudson Parkway on October 11, 2009, when she was the passenger in a car accident, driven by a driver who was allegedly driving while intoxicated.

Suffolk County Sheriff Errol D. Toulon, Jr. commends his deputies. “Suffolk County Deputy Sheriffs are out patrolling our county’s roads to keep the public safe. In this case, they not only prevented an intoxicated driver from causing an accident with another driver or a pedestrian, but they potentially saved the life of an infant in the vehicle. I am proud of their ongoing vigilance in protecting the residents of Suffolk County.”

For more information, contact Sgt. Paul Spinella at paul.spinells@suffolkcountyny.gov.

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