NEW BRUNSWICK — The source of an odor of alcohol is one point being contested in the trial of Kimberly Green, who is accused of driving while intoxicated in 2007 and killing an 18-year-old South Brunswick woman.
Green was 32 years old at the time of a motor vehicle accident around 3 a.m. Dec. 28, 2007. She has pleaded not guilty to one count of aggravated manslaughter and two counts of aggravated assault since Kylie Pinheiro, 18, of Dayton, was killed in the crash that occurred at the intersection of Route 1 north and Blackhorse Lane.
Toxicology reports showed that Green had a blood alcohol content of .159, which is almost twice the legal limit of .08, according to Middlesex County Assistant Prosecutor Nicholas Sewitch. He also said “excessive speed” was listed as a probable cause of the accident.
However, defense attorney Sandra Larson is citing a flawed investigation during the trial, which continued last week in state Superior Court, New Brunswick.
A videotaped interview of Green, conducted by Patrolman Mike Rogers of the South Brunswick Police Department and Investigator John Dando of the Prosecutor’s Office around 9:30 a.m. Dec. 28, shows the camera still taping after the initial interview, during which it can be heard from several officers that they could not corroborate if Green smelled like alcohol at the scene, and that the first responders on the scene were going to be told not to write anything about the odor of alcohol if they did not detect it.
A man on the tape is heard saying, “When I interviewed her I smelled her. When I first interviewed her [on site], I didn’t smell anything.” Then someone is heard saying, “If you did not detect alcohol, then don’t address it. If he didn’t smell alcohol, don’t address it.”
Rogers explained that officers are trained to include in official reports what they observe, not what they don’t observe. For example, he said, if an officer is investigating a homicide by gunshot, he or she would not note that a knife was not found at the crime scene.
Regardless, Larson argued that the smell could have been antifreeze on Green, but Dando is heard on the video saying, “I can still detect an odor of alcohol on your breath. Normally, when someone has two [drinks], you won’t detect that nine hours later.”
Green’s statement during the investigation said she had only two drinks in about a three-hour time span, after which she went to a friend’s home off Wynwood Drive in South Brunswick to eat before driving back to her own residence in Somerset.
“I just remember being hit. I remember being hit. Once I was hit, that was it. I remember being hit. At that point I felt like I was dying,” Green said in her videotaped statement. “Once the car finally stopped, I just jumped out, trying to catch my breath. … I remember seeing the girl on the ground; that’s all I remember.”
Green told investigators that the other car ran through the light and hit her. However, a police investigation showed that Green was traveling at a high rate of speed, hit a concrete barrier and then struck the Pinheiros’ car.
Larson argued that the investigators never did a speed analysis and that one of the eyewitnesses told police different information at the scene than what he said in his taped interview a few hours later.
Pinheiro was a passenger in the vehicle. Her cousin, Heather Pinheiro, 20, was driving and her sister, Melissa Pinheiro, 21, was in the back seat, reportedly unrestrained. Both suffered multiple serious injuries, with Melissa requiring surgery.
Larson questioned why Heather Pinheiro was not tested for drugs and alcohol. Dr. Meredith Tinti, a trauma surgeon and surgical critical care attendant at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital, testified that since Heather did not initially require a catheter while in the hospital, urine was not taken.
Yet after the jury was dismissed, Larson told the judge that there is an issue that Heather may have been unrestrained while driving and acutely intoxicated at the time.
Larson also asked why Green’s cell phone was checked to see if she was driving while talking or texting, but yet Heather Pinheiro’s was not.
She also stated that Officer Rogers’ report was completed about six to eight weeks after the accident, and that there were only general details included from the Pinheiros. Rogers said because both were in severe pain at the hospital, the interviews had to be discontinued. Larson argued that there should have been full statements by the young women instead of a summarization.
Green faces a maximum penalty of 30 years in prison for the manslaughter charge and 10 years for each of the two assault charges.
The trial is continuing this week.
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