82-year-old Doris Gadpaille was crossing the street in Queens on the evening of April 15th when an SUV driver blew through a stop sign, ran her over, and left her in a bloodied pile in the middle of the road. She's lucky to be alive, but now she's more than a little outraged, because it seems the alleged driver is an off-duty NYPD detective. "If he’s a policeman, he should know better,” Gadpaille told CBS 2′s John Slattery. "That's not human. It's not."
NYPD detective Michael Fantroy, a 15-year veteran of the department, was arrested on Monday on charges of leaving the scene of the accident. He pleaded not guilty and posted $2,500 bail. If convicted, he faces up to four years in prison, but his attorney insists that's not going to happen. "By no means is he conceding he was the operator of the motor vehicle," the attorney tells CBS 2. "The issue of whether he was in the vehicle at the time is still the district attorney’s burden to prove beyond a reasonable doubt."
Prosecutors do have a witness who followed Fantroy's SUV to his home, but Gadpaille—who was hospitalized with a fractured face, bruised hip, lacerated temple and lacerated hand—does not remember the accident. Regardless of the outcome of any future court case, she says justice will come to the driver one way or another. "If he did not stop, one day God is gonna stop him," Gadpaille predicts. That's a comforting sentiment, because it seems unlikely a jury is gonna stop him.
