No Charges for Cops Who Drove Chief’s Wife Home After 3 Crashes

Special treatment? Police officers won't face charges for their handling of a crash involving a former police chief's wife.

Donna Costanzo allegedly struck two parked cars in Yonkers before hitting a delivery truck in Tuckahoe last month.

Westchester DA: No Criminal Charges Against Tuckahoe Officers Who Drove Police Chief's Wife Home After Hit-And-Run Crashes

Westchester DA

A Westchester County investigation has concluded that Tuckahoe police officers will not face criminal charges after driving the wife of the town's retired police chief home following a series of hit-and-run crashes, rather than investigating whether she was impaired.

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The Westchester County District Attorney's Office released its findings after conducting an independent review of the August 14 incident involving Donna Costanzo, wife of retired Tuckahoe Police Chief John Costanzo.

What Happened

According to the DA's review, Costanzo was driving a black Infiniti sedan when she allegedly hit a parked vehicle on Falmouth Road in Yonkers at 2:53 p.m. on Aug. 14, and drove off.

Seventeen minutes later, she allegedly struck another vehicle in a parking lot on Central Avenue in Yonkers and left again.

Five minutes after that, she allegedly struck a legally parked Amazon delivery truck near the intersection of Columbus Avenue and Main Street in Tuckahoe.

Westchester DA

Yonkers Police notified Tuckahoe officers and asked them to be on the lookout for Costanzo's vehicle.

What Officers Did

Two Tuckahoe officers responded to the scene. Witness testimony found that Costanzo exhibited signs that could be consistent with intoxication.

However, none of the responding officers investigated whether she was impaired, administered any sobriety evaluation, or documented a reason for skipping that investigation, officials say.

Instead, one of the responding officers, who acknowledged knowing Costanzo was the former chief's wife, drove her home.

The Body Camera Problem

Westchester DA

The body camera footage from the scene is limited and raises serious questions. Motorola data found that one officer appeared to deactivate their body camera moments after approaching Costanzo in her vehicle, though the officer denied doing so.

The second officer's camera stopped recording about one minute and 45 seconds after arriving, with records confirming the battery had died.

The DA's Conclusion

Despite the troubling circumstances, the DA's Office says there's not enough evidence to establish criminal conduct by any of the officers involved and did not meet the probable cause threshold required to file charges.

The matter has been referred back to the Tuckahoe Police Department for internal investigation. The DA's office recommended the department update its body camera policy to require cameras remain active at accident scenes until individuals have been cleared of potential criminal wrongdoing.

Yonkers Police filed two charges of Leaving the Scene of a Property Damage Accident against Costanzo for the two Yonkers incidents. Those cases are currently pending in Yonkers City Court.

The footage was released for public review.