Witnesses tell of speeding pickup

Motorists describe concern after seeing vehicle's wrong-way direction on parkway before fatal crash

BY ANN GIVENS | Newsday Staff Writer

September 22, 2006

Stephen Weber was pulling onto the northbound lanes of the Meadowbrook Parkway when he noticed something strange: A pickup truck on the other side of the median going the same direction he was, he told jurors yesterday in Nassau County Court.

Weber, who was driving home from the Merrick biker bar Jugs and Strokers, said he sped up to about 70 mph to keep pace with the pickup. He looked inside and saw a man with both hands on the wheel, looking intently at the road in front of him. Then he looked in the distance and saw headlights coming toward the man.

"I realized something was wrong, and I wanted to see what I could do to warn the guy," Weber said. Soon afterward, with the view from his motorcycle obscured by shrubbery, "I heard a thud, a screech and a bang. I knew there was an accident."

Weber testified yesterday in the trial of Martin Heidgen, who prosecutors say was driving that pickup drunk when it slammed into a limousine returning from a wedding and killed two people on July 2, 2005. Weber was one of three witnesses yesterday who said they saw Heidgen, 25, of Valley Stream, speeding up the parkway minutes before the crash. Heidgen is charged with murder in the deaths of the two people killed in that crash - limo driver Stanley Rabinowitz, 59, of Farmingdale, and Katie Flynn, 7, of Long Beach, who had just served as a flower girl in her aunt's wedding.

Weber said he didn't stop because he didn't realize how serious it was. He said he came forward earlier this month only after reading a Newsday story about the trial.

His estimate of Heidgen's speed could be damaging to the defense, since Heidgen's lawyer, Stephen LaMagna of Garden City, has said Heidgen got on the wrong side of the parkway accidentally and slowed down as soon as he realized his mistake. Prosecutors, on the other hand, believe that Heidgen was feeling desperate after a fight with his ex-girlfriend and drove the wrong way, not caring whether he killed someone.

According to the witnesses' testimony, Heidgen was on the road for about three miles. Elizabeth Serwin also said she honked at him after she pulled onto the shoulder of the road. LaMagna has said that Heidgen was on the road for about an eighth of a mile and questioned whether Serwin, the witness who says she saw him farthest south, knew where she was when she called 911.

Joseph Caruso, 35, said he was driving to his girlfriend's house in Long Beach when he saw Heidgen's headlights coming right at him. He said he drifted to the left, and Heidgen's car seemed to drift in the same direction. Then he pulled back into the center lane, and Heidgen did too. Finally, he said he swerved into the right lane and Heidgen just missed him, passing so close that his whole car shook.

"I felt like I was playing a pretty wild game of chicken," Caruso said in court.

Also yesterday, Heidgen's friend Tracy Sodikoff testified that she was with Heidgen at a party until about a half-hour before the crash and that he appeared intoxicated. But Sodikoff also said Heidgen seemed happy, countering prosecutors' theory that he was depressed that night.

LaMagna said one person who claims to have seen Heidgen driving on the parkway the night of the crash and who is on the district attorney's witness list, was himself arrested for drunken driving about two months after the crash. LaMagna said the man, Joseph Todaro, made a deal with then-District Attorney Denis Dillon's office to reduce his charge to speeding in exchange for testifying against Heidgen.

Todaro could not be reached for comment. Eric Phillips, a spokesman for District Attorney Kathleen Rice, would not comment on the case. However, he said no one who will be testifying received any such deal, and said Rice would find any such deal "disgusting."

Trial at a glance

Previously: Family members and initial witnesses on the scene testified about the aftermath of the crash.

Yesterday: Other motorists on the parkway testified that Martin Heidgen was driving about 70 mph the wrong way and seemed to try to hit other cars.

Still to come: The judge will decide whether to readmit blood evidence after its DNA is compared to Heidgen's.

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Witnesses tell of speeding pickup

Motorists describe concern after seeing vehicle's wrong-way direction on parkway before fatal crash

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