Nassau officer won't face charges in crash that killed Morgan Salomone last year, AG report says

An on-duty Nassau County police officer who struck and killed a 22-year-old pedestrian in Wantagh last year won't face criminal charges, the attorney general's office said.

Morgan Salomone of Wantagh, died after she was hit by a marked Nassau police SUV on Nov. 22.

New York State Attorney General Letitia James' Office of Special Investigation, which investigates all officer-involved fatalities, determined that Officer Michael Schwaner, who was driving the vehicle that struck Salomone, was not speeding, using his cellphone or impaired by drugs or alcohol at the time of the crash.

The report said the officer had a green light and Salomone crossed the street against the light. Salomone's mother, Mary Anne Marman, told Newsday last year that her daughter was a college student who did not drive and was walking to her part-time job at a local Stop & Shop at the time of the crash.  Her mother said Salomone had studied biology and pharmacology at Nassau Community College, but was interested in pursuing a career in the arts.  

Marman did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment Tuesday.

Marman's attorney, Larry Kramer, of Kramer & Pollack in Mineola, who has filed a notice of claim against the county, contested the report's findings in several areas, pointing out that the estimate of the police vehicle's speed, from automated vehicle location technology, was taken three minutes before the crash. 

 Kramer said surveillance video showed that the police car was traveling faster than other cars on the same street and the car stopped 250 feet from the point of impact. He also said the "significant" damage to the police car indicated it was traveling at a faster speed. Kramer said the attorney general's office should have used an accident reconstructionist.  

"Their conclusion that the vehicle A., was traveling 35 mph, and B., wasn't speeding, is inaccurate," Kramer said. "The distance it traveled from the point of impact, and the damage to the hood of that car, belies 35 mph. To say in that news release that the officer wasn't speeding, I think, is misleading at a minimum." 

According to the report, Schwaner and his partner, Officer Craig Beatty, who were assigned to the department's Highway Patrol Bureau’s Motor Carrier Unit, were traveling in a marked suburban from the Morrelly Homeland Security Center in Bethpage to the Highway Patrol Bureau base in North Bellmore at the time of the crash.

The vehicle was driving 35 mph about three minutes before impact, the report said, which noted that the speed limit on that street is 40 mph.

Investigators used home security video from the area, officer body camera video, forensic technology, as well as witness statements, to piece together what happened, the report said.

The police vehicle was not equipped with a dashboard camera and its turret lights were not activated because it was not heading to an emergency.

It was cloudy and raining and the sun had not yet completely risen at 6:29 a.m. when the police SUV, which was southbound on Wantagh Avenue, struck Salomone as she crossed the street, the report said.

The force of the impact "propelled her upward before she landed on the hood of the Suburban and fell off onto the roadway," the report said.

Schwaner's body camera footage showed him asking Salomone if she could hear him, "and then [Schwaner] "kneeled over her and put his fingers on her neck, seemingly checking for a pulse," the report said, adding that Schwaner began chest compressions "while continually checking her neck for a pulse" until paramedics arrived.

Salomone was pronounced dead shortly after she arrived at Nassau University Medical Center in East Meadow. An autopsy performed by Dr. Brian O’Reilly, of the Nassau County Medical Examiner’s Office, determined Salomone’s cause of death was "blunt force trauma to head, neck, torso and extremities" and found that the manner of death to be accidental, the report said.

In an interview with investigators, Schwaner said Salomone "darted out in front of [him] from the left lane" and he did not see her before the collision and couldn't hit the vehicle's brakes before hitting her, the report said, though he said he had a "birds eye view" of the intersection.

The report noted that Schwaner was tested for alcohol consumption at 8:24 a.m., nearly two hours after the crash, and the preliminary breath test showed a 0.00% blood alcohol content.

 The report said the attorney general's office recommends that police officers should be held to the same standards as civilians and state Vehicle and Traffic Law calls for immediate blood alcohol content testing at the scene of a crash.

"Although there is no basis to believe that Officer Schwaner had alcohol in his system, if he had, the delay of two hours in obtaining his blood alcohol sample would have had a significant effect on the results of the testing," the report said.

The office also recommends training on the administration of the preliminary breath test for patrol officers and supervisors. A department spokeswoman did not immediately respond to a request for comment. 

By Nicole Fuller

nicole.fuller@newsday.com@NicoleFuller

Nicole Fuller is Newsday's senior criminal justice reporter. She began working at Newsday in 2012 and previously covered local government.