Truck driver charged after fatally striking Australian tourist

[The Bobster]

https://nypost.com/2018/08/11/truck-driver-charged-after-fatally-striking-australian-tourist/

Truck driver charged after fatally striking Australian tourist
By Joe Tacopino
August 11, 2018 | 3:54am

The mangled bike at the scene of the accident. Robert Mecea


A truck driver was charged early Saturday in connection with the death of an Australian tourist who he struck while driving in the Upper West Side, cops said.

Felipe Chairez, 44, was charged with driving while intoxicated after slamming his truck into 23-year-old Madison Jane Lyden at around 5:10 p.m. on Friday, according to police.

Lyden was riding a rental bike when an Uber pulled into the bike lane and she veered into traffic, sources said.

As she swerved around the livery car, the woman was struck by the private sanitation truck, the sources said.

She was rushed to Mount Sinai West Hospital, where she died.

Police later determined the Chairez, the driver of the truck, was intoxicated.

He was being held at the 20 Precinct Station house on Saturday morning.

 

[Whitebear]

(Drunken Mexican) Garbage truck driver who fatally struck young White female Australian tourist was drunk

A truck driver was charged early Saturday in connection with the death of an Australian tourist who he struck while driving in the Upper West Side, cops said. Felipe Chairez, 44, was charged with driving while intoxicated after slamming his truck into 23-year-old Madison Jane Lyden at around 5:10 p.m. on Friday, according to police. Lyden was riding a rental bike when an Uber pulled into the bike lane and she veered into traffic, sources said. As she swerved around the livery car, the woman was struck by the private sanitation truck, the sources said. She was rushed to Mount Sinai West Hospital, where she died. Police later determined the Chairez, the driver of the truck, was intoxicated. - (Mestizo-on-White)

• Aussie cyclist struck and killed in New York
• Tasmanian Madison Jane Lyden struck and killed while cycling in New York City
• Drunken Hispanic) Truck driver Felipe Chairez, charged after fatally striking (young White female) Australian tourist

• Citizenship status of the Hispanic suspect has not been reported in this news article...

 

[The Bobster]

https://nypost.com/2018/08/11/drunk...bed-alcohol-before-fatal-crash-lawyer-claims/

‘Drunk driver’s sandwich absorbed alcohol before fatal crash, lawyer claims
By Ruth Weissmann and Ben Feuerherd
August 11, 2018 | 4:25pm

The allegedly drunken garbage-truck driver who killed an Australian tourist near Central Park Friday wasn’t impaired by the alcohol he drank that day — because he ate a chicken-salad sandwich before getting behind the wheel, his lawyer argued in court Saturday.

Felipe Chairez, 44, was charged with driving while intoxicated after slamming his truck into 23-year-old Madison Jane Lyden, who was riding a rental bike just before 5 p.m. on Central Park West, police said.

Police said they found three empty beer cans inside Felipe Chairez’ sanitation truck after they stopped him at the scene of the fatal collision.

But the beers wouldn’t have affected his driving because of his lunch order that day, his lawyer claimed at Chairez’ Saturday arraignment.

“If he had a chicken salad sandwich, the alcohol may have been absorbed by the lunch he had,” said lawyer Kenneth Ware.

Chairez blood-alcohol level at the time of the crash was between .04 and .06, according to the court documents.

Lyden had veered into Chairez’ lane near West 67th Street and Central Park West after an Uber barged into her bike lane, police said. As she navigated around the livery car, Chairez slammed into her with his sanitation truck.

Chairez was stopped by police at the scene, and admitted that he drank two beers before getting in the driver’s seat, according to court documents.

He was arraigned on the misdemeanor charge of operating a motor vehicle while under the influence of alcohol or drugs and released on his own recognizance.

He was also ordered to give up his license for the time being.

 

[The Bobster]

Trash man who fatally struck cyclist became drug-ring ‘enforcer,’ feds say

https://nypost.com/2021/07/30/trash-man-who-fatally-struck-tourist-also-drug-ring-enforcer-feds-say/

Trash man who fatally struck cyclist became drug-ring ‘enforcer,’ feds say
By Ben Feuerherd
July 30, 2021 | 3:32pm | Updated

Federal prosecutors allege that Felipe Chairez worked as an enforcer for a Mexican drug ring. Steven Hirsch


A former garbage truck driver who landed only a fine after fatally mowing down an Australian tourist near Central Park in 2018 may end up doing six years behind bars — for his work as a drug ring enforcer.

Ex-trash hauler-turned-narco henchman Felipe Chairez threatened to take a chainsaw to a New York man and rape his wife at the direction of Mexican drug traffickers, prosecutors allege.

Chairez was arrested by the feds over the threats in July 2019 — about a year after he struck and killed 23-year-old Australian tourist Madison Jane Lyden at West 67th Street and Central Park West in Manhattan. Lyden had ridden her bike into his traffic lane to avoid an Uber that swerved into her bike lane.

Chairez had downed two beers before he got behind the wheel of his truck but was only slapped with a $1,000 fine in the case after pleading guilty to one count of operating a motor vehicle while impaired by alcohol.

Madison Jane Lyden was killed when Felipe Chairez hit her with his sanitation truck.
Facebook


But the former garbage hauler is now facing some serious prison time in the drug case.

The US Probation Department requested that Chairez serve six years after he pleaded guilty to a drug conspiracy charge in April. He is scheduled to be sentenced Wednesday.

In a sentencing memo filed Thursday, prosecutors detailed the terrifying threats Chairez made to an unnamed man who was working as an informant against the unidentified drug organization, which sold “distribution-weight narcotics” in New York.

Under the feds’ direction, the informant arranged to buy 5 kilos of coke from the traffickers, which the authorities seized, according to prosecutors.

The drug dealers held the informant responsible — and sicced Chairez on him to recoup the money, according to court papers.

In July 2019, Chairez went to an auto body shop where the informant worked and stayed there for hours, waiting for him to show up, prosecutors charged.

While he waited, Chairez told the man’s co-workers he would bring a chainsaw to the shop and showed them photos he had of the informant’s family and friends.

He then called the informant and threatened that a high-ranking member of the drug organization would come to New York to collect the money from him.

“You don’t want him to come,” he allegedly wrote.

Chairez also texted the man photos of his family and threatened to sexually assault his wife if he didn’t pay up.

“Your wife is looking good, man. I will let you know [how] the p—y was,” he wrote in one of the messages, according to authorities.

“It’s on motherf–ker,” he added in another, the feds charged.

Soon after, the man arranged to give Chairez $5,000 at a Bronx restaurant, and authorities arrested the former trash hauler after the money changed hands.

In their sentencing memo, prosecutors noted Chairez was still dealing with the fallout from Lyden’s death when he made the threats.

“Approximately nine months later, the defendant was working as a debt collector and enforcer for a [drug trafficking organization], threatening to bring a chainsaw to his victim’s place of work and rape his wife,” Assistant US Attorney Benjamin Schrier wrote in the sentencing memo.

“Less than a year before he started working for the DTO, the defendant had what should have been a course-correcting collision with the criminal justice system. And yet, after being prosecuted in connection with the death of another person, the defendant’s criminal conduct got even worse,” Schrier added.

Chairez’s lawyer, Alexei Schacht, told The Post in a statement Friday, “My client deeply regrets his past conduct that was caused by his alcoholism.

“And he has been working full time since his arrest in this case to rehabilitate himself and to make amends for his conduct.”

 

[The Bobster]

https://nypost.com/2021/08/04/man-who-killed-tourist-quotes-grateful-dead-at-drug-sentencing/

Trash man who fatally struck tourist quotes Grateful Dead at drug case sentencing
By Ben Feuerherd
August 4, 2021 | 1:24pm | Updated

This sentencing was a long, strange trip.

The ex-garbage hauler who mowed down an Australian tourist near Central Park in 2018 quoted lyrics from a Grateful Dead song before learning his fate in a federal drug case Wednesday.

Felipe Chairez, 47, quoted lyrics from the acid rock classic “Scarlett Begonias” while telling Manhattan federal court Judge John Koeltl that he was trying beat alcoholism while awaiting sentencing in the Metropolitan Correctional Center.

“Your honor, once in a while you can get shown the light in the strangest of places if you look at it right,” Chairez said, reciting lines from the song penned by noted Dead lyricist Robert Hunter.

Chairez added that he’s reconnected with his religion and has been reading literature from Alcoholics Anonymous while behind bars.

“I do not recommend the path I chose. I had to come to this place of darkness to reconnect with my light,” he said.

Chairez pleaded guilty in April to a drug conspiracy charge for working as an enforcer and debt collector for an unnamed Mexican drug trafficking organization in New York. He was sentenced to six years in prison and four years supervised release Wednesday.

The former trash hauler-turned-narco henchman threatened to take a chainsaw to a New York man and rape his wife because he owed money to the organization for five kilos of cocaine, prosecutors charged.

Chairez was arrested for the scheme in 2019 — about a year after he was slapped with a $1,000 fine for fatally mowing down 23-year-old Australian tourist Madison Jane Lyden in his private garbage truck at West 67th Street and Central Park West in Manhattan. :headbash:

He had downed two beers before hitting Lyden — who had swerved into his lane while trying to avoid an Uber driver who had barged into her bike lane — and later pleaded guilty to one count of operating a motor vehicle while impaired by alcohol.

Judge Koeltl on Wednesday recommended he be treated for substance abuse during his time in prison.a