A drugged-up, wealthy Long Island teen with an accident-riddled driving record plowed into a young couple out for an evening jog, killing a popular teacher and leaving her boyfriend critically injured, authorities said yesterday.That's two more really good people whose lives have been ruined--and in one case ended--because a spoiled trust-fund pothead decided that, laws be damned, he was going to get high. This is why drugs like marijuana are illegal. And this is why I believe that people who grow, sell or use marijuana should be hit with harsh penalties.
Shea Rosen, 19 - who lives with his mother in a $6 million "Gold Coast" mansion in Brookville - was flying high as he cruised southbound on a busy stretch of Route 110 in Huntington at around 7:25 p.m. Thursday. He later claimed he never saw the two victims.
Amanda Malloy, 29, and Vincent Saunders, 32, were smashed from behind and dragged a short way before Rosen stopped his Dodge Durango, police said.
Malloy, a fourth-grade teacher, died at the scene, while Saunders, a bouncer and martial-arts enthusiast, was seriously injured and taken to Mt. Sinai Hospital in Manhattan.
This marks the fourth car crash this year for Rosen, according to DMV records. Sources said at least one of his previous smash-ups led to injuries, but the details were not known.
Cops said he smelled of marijuana and looked unsteady after the crash. He also had three unidentified pills in his sock, officials said.
He was charged with driving while intoxicated and ordered held on $1 million bail while authorities await the results of a court-ordered breath test.
Last night, Malloy's sister Becky, 27, lashed out at the teen.
"I'm angry. I want him to go to jail for what he took away from this world," she told The Post. "He took away an angel. She touched everyone's life she came across."
Officials at JFK Intermediate School in Deer Park had to break the news to the young students.
"I feel very sad," said 10- year-old Michael Theiling, who welled up in tears after class. "I like Miss Malloy. She was a very nice person."
Rosen told cops he was headed home after picking up his paycheck at the Prime Restaurant, where he worked as a busboy.
Malloy and Vincent had been working out together at a nearby gym when they decided to take their fateful, six-mile jog. Like Vincent, Malloy was a martial-arts expert who held a black belt.
They were running close to the curb when they were hit from behind, leaving two large dents in Rosen's car.
"They never saw it coming," said Suffolk County Detective Sgt. Bruce Markgraf.
But Rosen refused a breath test, telling cops: "I'm not taking anything. No way am I taking it. I didn't see her. She was running in the road."
Rosen, whose Facebook picture shows him giving the middle finger, was still in custody last night on the $1 million bond.
Saunders was fighting for his life, with injuries to his heart and legs.
I don't even know Amanda Malloy and Vincent Saunders, but I suspect that their lives were more promising and valuable than those of any thousand stoners like Rosen. Isn't that right, Jack Herer?
I don't like to smoke marijuana, and I don't drink (I'm such a goody-two shoes). But we already tried to ban drinking from 1920-1933, and it didn't work. Now we're trying to ban smoking pot with the same zero success rate.
ReplyDeleteAt the same time, I support laws which clamp down on driving under the influence. That includes any drug, be it alcohol or marijuana or what have you. That's not a problem. It's one thing to do something in the privacy of your own home, but when you take it out to the streets you endanger other people and that's where the law should come down like a ton of bricks.
Oh, I'm all about enforcement for DUI, be it drugs or alcohol. Most states (Virginia and Michigan excepted) are still way too lax on this. (I like mandatory jail sentences no matter who you are--like VA does--and forfeiture of cars for repeat offenders.) But punishing after the fact isn't a complete solution, nor does it prevent tragedies like this one. We need to make punks like Shea think about the consequences, and we need to do what we can to keep the drugs from ever getting to the Shea Rosens out there. True, prohibition didn't work, but neither is it realistic to expect that if drugs are legal, that druggies will only use them in a safe, secure environment and stay there until they are sober again. I do think, however, that the war on drugs DOES discourage many people from using drugs who would otherwise do so if drugs were legal. It's impossible to quantify something like that, but it's a given that if marijuana was legal, we'd see a lot more of it than we do now.
ReplyDeleteBesides, drug interdiction is FUN!
And who the fuck are you to sit there and preach to everyone about what should happen in a case that doesn't have anything to do with you?! Shea Rosen is not a trust fund baby, he does not live with his mother, he's not a druggie and has had FOR SURE the hardest life out of anyone that you know. Get your facts straight before you start talking shit you stupid asshole.
ReplyDeleteNormally I don't allow obscene and anonymous posts from morons, but this one makes me laugh so I'll let it stand.
ReplyDeleteWe're apparently supposed to feel sorry for SHEA--not the two productive people that he mowed down--because SHEA has a "tough life".
Yeah, living on New York's Gold Coast and bopping around in a nice, shiny Dodge Durango that mommy probably bought and paid for sounds real tough. I also note that he's got a real attorney, not a freebie public defender. Someone's picking up that tab, and it's sure not anyone living on a busboy's wages.
Somehow I doubt that either Shea or his loser burnout trust-fund pals will ever know what a tough life is--one where you have to get up and go to work every day and hope that no spoiled rich druggie comes along and cripples or kills you.
In a Just world, Shea Rosen would be given a fair trial, and if convicted of driving under the influence of drugs, simply taken out back of the courthouse and shot.
But we don't live in a Just world, so we have to find some satisfaction in the thought of Shea in jail, where he's no doubt down on his knees right now making some real tough guys happy in exchange for them not caving his face in.
This is such a sad story!
ReplyDeleteWhat a loser-I can't believe that people are actually defending him.
[Disclosure: I am familiar with the situs of the incident, and in fact passed by it a few weeks ago.]
ReplyDeleteLet's see: Four car crashes this year (with almost 2 months remaining). Three traffic tickets last year (this was reported in the Newsday coverage, though not in the New York Post article). Pills in his socks. Arresting officer smelled cannibis. Arresting officer observed him to be intoxicated. Refused to take breathalyzer test.
The very, very, absolute best that can be said about this guy is that he is a slow learner!
Query: If (or rather, when) Mom and/or Dad pony up the $1 million bond (which can be secured by the equity in their homes, if there is any equity remaining what with the softening Long Island realty market), will the conditions of bail include a prohibition against driving a motor vehicle? And if so, how effective can we expect such condition to be?
As a jogger/bicyclist/motorist who uses many the same thorofares as this clown, I certainly have reason to be concerned.
Regardless of where Shea comes from, as a mother, I want to know why Shea Rosen's parents would even allow him to drive after 4 accidents this year?!
ReplyDeleteI know personally that both Amanda & Vincent also had tough lives and have strived to become good caring people and productive citizens.
Now MANY people are going to suffer the consequences of Shea's actions. Amanda paid the highest price- she lost her life! Imagine what her family is going through and will go through for the rest of their lives.
Vincent, is fighting a daily battle to regain his life. Who knows if it will ever be the way it was. A way he worked so hard for it to be.
The comments "annonymous" made just show the ignorance and immaturity of those Shea associated himself with. Just like Shea's actions showed his.
I agree. Shea was the product of over-indulgent parents and punk friends and decent people paid for it.
ReplyDeleteVincent will be in our prayers.
This little maggot should be locked up forever! A Ted Kennedy in the making.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous said...
ReplyDelete...he's not a druggie and has had FOR SURE the hardest life out of anyone that you know...
The first thing I notice about Anonymous' comment is that he/she specifically says "he's not a druggie".
Umm, last time I checked, federal law classifies marijuana as a controlled substance. That would be a drug, moron.
Perhaps if you know Shea, as you seem to claim by stating he has had a hard life, you could let us all in on the details.
I doubt it though... because you feel the need to hide behind your anonymous by line.
Gotta love it.
Let me start by stating that I do NOT, in any way shape or form defend Shea's actions. Nor will you ever say that his difficult life is an "ecuse" for what happened to Ms. Malloy & Mr. Saunders. What I will say, is that as Anonymous said (though in a very unproductive way), Shea IS, in his heart, a good guy who would NEVER intentionally harm ANYone. Clearly, his actions don't back that up, I get that. I will NOT go into all of his personal life because this case is pending, & really it's not something that the public needs to know all details of (one thing I will say is that he had already been in rehab early in his life & it seems as though his family wasn't there, cracking down on him & supporting him at that time like they ought to have been). But let's not allow ANY of ourselves to be so jaded or naive to think that because someone came from a wealthy (albeit broken) family, they lived on easy street & don't face any traumatic issues in their life. Let none of us be naive enough to truly believe "money solves everything." For a young man who faced so much negativity, hatred & didn't receive the love he should've from his family, he still had an incredible capacity to love - if only he used that love for himself so a tragedy like this could've been prevented.
ReplyDeleteOne year later, Vincent seems to have made a remarkable recovery!
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