September 6, 2008
THE LIMO VERDICT: THE SURVIVORS
For two families, relief
Victims' survivors are overcome as guilty verdict for murder ends ordeal for now, renews faith in system
Walking out of the courtroom after Martin Heidgen's guilty verdict on murder charges, a look of serenity washed over Keith Rabinowitz's face.
"It's so emotional," he said as he put his arms around his pregnant wife, Bonnie, who wiped away tears. "I'm relieved."
If the baby, due in the spring, is a boy, they plan to name him Stanley after his father, who died at the wheel of the limousine that Heidgen hit head-on in a drunken driving crash in July of last year. The crash also took the life of Katie Flynn, 7, and injured her parents, Neil and Jennifer, and Jennifer's parents, Chris and Denise Tangney, all of Long Beach.
Keith's mother and Stanley's former wife of 28 years, Joyce Rabinowitz, let out a scream when the verdict was read. "At least we can take a breath and resume a normal life; at least for now," she said. "This trial was too much on all of us."
Neil Flynn, who appeared outside the courtroom as composed and resolute as he has been throughout the trial, said the verdict is just the end of one chapter for his family. "Nobody's moving on," he said. "Our family is where our family is and we will be there for a long time. We're glad he's moving on to prison. I hope it's as bad as I've heard it is."
"We'll carry Katie with us and that loss for the rest of our lives," said Katie's great-aunt Pat Foy.
That sense of loss has been a binding force for the Flynn and Rabinowitz families throughout the trial. After the verdict, Denise Tangney's sister, Janet Crowe, embraced Stanley Rabinowitz's wife, Rita, and through tears they promised to get together for dinner soon. "One nation under God," Crowe told Rabinowitz. "We're one family under God."
Katie Flynn's great-aunt, Liz Hudak, who came down from Lake Placid to attend the trial, writing down every detail, became sick from the emotion of the verdict. "I'm so grateful," she said through a steady flow of tears. "Justice was served. We can never get Katie or Mr. Rabinowitz back, but now I have some belief in the system, which I didn't have before."
She said alongside the stress of the trial, the death of Denise Tangney's mother Friday pushed the family to the emotional brink. "She was in the same room as Katie was," Hudak said of the wake for Ruth Dave. "Going through that in the middle of this was just horrible."
Family members had high praise for the jurors. "We know how difficult this was for them," said Foy.
The family also praised Judge Alan Honorof, calling him firm but fair.
Relatives said they hope the verdict serves as a model to deter drunken driving. "Stan and Katie didn't die in vain," Rita Rabinowitz said.
From day one, she said, she had put her faith in God, and in the end, she said, it worked.
"We didn't have a verdict," she said. "We had a miracle."
Staff writer Juliet Chung contributed to this story.
Copyright © 2008, Newsday Inc.
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