A woman left comatose after a former Middletown police officer crashed his car into hers while he was drunk has died, according to the Jersey Journal.
Forty-year-old Ruth Zelaya died March 24 as a result of “complications from the motor vehicle collision,” Hudson County Assistant Prosecutor Michael D’Andrea told the newspaper.
Zelaya’s two-year-old son, Jose Carlos Zelaya, died several days after the January, 2007 wreck on the Pulaksi Skyway in Jersey City.
Kevin Freibott, a Middletown resident and Jersey City police officer, is serving an 11-year prison sentence following his December 2007 guilty plea to vehicular homicide, assault by auto and drunk driving.
Under the terms of a plea agreement, he is not expected to face additional charges as a result of Zelaya’s death.
From the Journal:
Freibott was hired by Jersey City in December 2005 as a transfer from another police department, despite a record including a previous DWI, seven car accidents, seven moving violations and three license suspensions. He is a cousin of Jersey City Mayor Jerramiah Healy.
The Zelaya family is being represented in a civil suit by attorney Sam Davis who also sued Madison Square Garden for $18 million, alleging Freibott was served alcohol at the arena prior to the crash even though the former officer was already intoxicated.
Freibott was fired from the Middletown police in 2001 after a minor accident outside a tavern, but was ordered reinstated a year later.
