By Forum Staff
Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz announced that Jessica Beauvais was convicted Tuesday of aggravated manslaughter for driving drunk and slamming into an NYPD detective stationed at a highway roadblock. Detective Anastasios Tsakos suffered catastrophic injuries and was pronounced dead a short time after he was struck by Beauvais on the Long Island Expressway in 2021.
Beauvais, 34, of Hempstead, was convicted by a jury Tuesday of aggravated manslaughter in the second degree; vehicular manslaughter in the second degree; and leaving the scene of an incident without reporting.
Queens Supreme Court Justice Michael Aloise set sentencing for Dec. 14.
File Photo
“The defendant had absolutely no business being behind the wheel,” DA Katz said.
According to the charges and trial testimony:
On April 27, 2021, at approximately 12:30 a.m., Tsakos, a member of the NYPD highway patrol, responded to the scene of a fatal car crash on the eastbound side of the Long Island Expressway at the entrance ramp to the Clearview Expressway.
At approximately 1:45 a.m., Tsakos and his partner set up a roadblock that included traffic cones and a marked police vehicle to divert traffic around the crash scene.
Tsakos was standing beyond the roadblock at approximately 1:57 a.m. when Beauvais sped through the traffic cones in a 2013 Volkswagen Passat and hit him. Tsakos was thrown into the air, landing some 170 feet away on the highway’s shoulder. His left leg was severed from the knee down.
Tsakos was rushed to a nearby hospital where he died from his injuries.
Beauvais sped away, pursued by police for approximately three miles, before exiting onto the Horace Harding Expressway. She drove onto the sidewalk in front of 221-22 Horace Harding Expwy. A police car pulled behind Beauvais, who put her car into reverse and hit the police cruiser.
Beauvais was removed from her car and arrested. She had bloodshot and watery eyes, slurred speech and a strong smell of alcohol on her breath. Two hours after the incident, she had a blood alcohol content of .15, well above the legal maximum threshold of .08.
Beauvais told police she smoked marijuana and drank wine earlier in the day.
Records indicated that Beauvais’ license was suspended.
“Her license had been suspended, her blood alcohol level was at nearly twice the legal limit and she had smoked marijuana. The defendant had absolutely no business being behind the wheel. Her selfish decision-making and recklessness led to a horrific, senseless tragedy that left Detective Tsakos’ widow to raise their two young children without their father,” Katz said. “We are grateful for the jury’s verdict and hope it brings at least some measure of solace to the detective’s loved ones.”
Beauvais faces up to 27 years in prison.
