An off-duty police officer has been suspended without pay after being charged with vehicular assault and operating a motor vehicle while under the influence of alcohol. 27-year-old officer Roniel Dilone, a four year veteran, was off-duty when he smashed his Nissan Altima into a parked Subaru early Sunday in Throgs Neck. The crash sent the Subaru into a tree and the Altima onto the curb. Dilone was not seriously injured, but his passenger, Allan Reyes, sustained a fractured leg, shoulder and bruised ribs. Dilone told an EMT at the scene he had earlier consumed four beers.
"I was driving, then the next thing, I heard my passenger screaming that he thinks his leg is broken," Dilone said after the crash. According to court papers obtained by the Daily News, Dilone had "a flushed face and bloodshot, watery eyes." He refused to take a Breathalyzer test, but his blood was drawn after cops got a warrant, and results are pending.
In September, another NYPD officer, Andrew Kelly, was able to delay his blood test for almost eight hours after fatally running over a pedestrian in Brooklyn. (The results showed no alcohol in his system.) And earlier this month off-duty police officer Raphael Ospina was charged with DWI after crashing his car into a private sanitation truck, then Tiffany's.
