Truck driver accused of delaying trial due to expert suspicious past due to death of 7 cyclists

The trial of a truck driver accused of causing the deaths of 7 motorcyclists was postponed due to concerns about the accident reconstruction expert’s previous work experience in Massachusetts police.

The 25-year-old Volodymyr Zhukovskyy was charged with multiple counts of manslaughter, manslaughter, drunk driving, and Rudolf’s crash in Randolph on June 21, 2019. Associated PressZhukovsky pleaded not guilty to these charges.

The victim was a member of the Jarheads Motorcycle Club, an organization composed of U.S. Marine Corps veterans and their spouses. Mass Live Report.

At the last pre-trial hearing on Tuesday, the defense filed a motion stating that they can no longer appear in court, the accident reconstruction expert Stephen Benanti (Stephen Benanti). The decision was based on information provided to them by the prosecutor about Benanti’s previous work in the Massachusetts State Police. Benanti was questioned by the prosecutor in his testimony on September 30.

The motion stated that the prosecution provided “a large amount of confidential material” to the defense.

The motion described Benanti as “a well-known reconstruction expert with more than 30 years of experience in the field, including more than 10 years as the head of the Massachusetts State Police’s reconstruction department.” Since August 2019, Benante has been cooperating with the Ministry of Defense.

The defense attorney stated in the report’s motion that submitting the Benanti case is detrimental to Zhukovskyy’s case. WMUR9. The trial was originally scheduled to start on November 29, but it will now be March.

For more reports from the Associated Press, please see below.

On Tuesday, November 9, 2021, at the 25-year-old Cous County Superior Court in Lancaster, New Hampshire, located in West Springfield, Massachusetts, defense attorney Steven Mirkin was arguing for his At the pre-trial hearing held by the client Volodymyr Zhukovskyy, it was pointed out that the evidence would go to trial on November 29. The charges were negligent homicide, manslaughter, drunk driving, and reckless behavior. These charges were caused by Randolph in June. A crash in which 7 motorcyclists died.
Charles Krupa, Pool/Associated Press Photo

The lawyer was originally scheduled to start selecting jurors for Zhukovsky’s November 29 trial on November 16.

At the last pre-trial hearing scheduled for Tuesday, the lawyers launched the testimony of Zhukovsky’s timetable for the crash and the testimony of a truck with a flatbed trailer, as well as the expected testimony of expert witnesses on drug and alcohol problems. debate. Zhukovsky, who has been jailed since the crash, appeared in court in a suit without handcuffs.

The defense stated that based on their review of the information, they no longer believed that they could “substantially damage” Zhukovsky’s right to “provide all evidence in favor of his defense” to make a statement to Benanti. They said that without the help of similar accident reconstruction experts, they would not be able to conduct the trial in time.