Woman Indicted After Death Of NYPD Cop In Queens

QUEENS — A Long Island woman has been indicted on manslaughter charges after being accused of hitting and killing an NYPD officer on the Long Island Expressway while driving with a blood alcohol content nearly two times the legal limit.

Early in the morning of April 27, Jessica Beauvais, 32, was speeding down the Long Island Expressway near the ramp entrance to the Clearview Expressway when she hit father-of-two Anastasios Tsakos, 43, who was directing traffic at the scene of another fatal crash, according to the Queens District Attorney and NYPD officials.

Tsakos, a 14-year NYPD veteran, died at a nearby hospital as a result of his injuries and was later brought by motorcade to Long Island, where his funeral was held.

Beauvais had her blood alcohol content tested at the precinct a couple of hours later. It was still nearly two times the legal limit of New York State — a blood alcohol content of 0.15, compared with the state’s legal limit for driving of 0.08, reported the DA.

Queens DA Melinda Katz said that Beauvais made a series of “bad choices, from drinking and getting high and getting behind the wheel of a car, that ended tragically,” echoing Mayor Bill de Blasio’s sentiment immediately after the accidents, which he described as a “horrendous pattern” of “people doing the wrong thing” and causing the death of others.

Katz also noted that after hitting Tsakos, Beauvais continued to drive recklessly and then attempted to flee from police.

She allegedly drove several exits and took the Horace Harding off ramp, where she drove onto a sidewalk and reversed into a police car before being arrested, according to the DA.

In addition to manslaughter charges, Beauvais was indicted on a total of 13 offenses, including aggravated criminally negligent homicide, leaving the scene of an incident without reporting, unlawful fleeing a police officer in a motor vehicle, reckless driving, aggravated unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle, and several counts of driving under the influence.

She is expected to return to court on May 25 and faces up to 15 years in prison if convicted.