No deal reached
Plea talks in the Schoharie limo crash case ended without an agreement.
Plea-bargain negotiations between prosecutors and lawyers for Nauman Hussain, the operator of the limousine company that owned the stretch limo that crashed in Schoharie, killing 20 people nearly two years ago, ended Wednesday with no sign an agreement was in place.
A new conference with Schoharie County Judge George Bartlett III was scheduled for July 30.
Hussain and his attorneys participated Wednesday in a video conference with District Attorney Susan Mallery and Bartlett. The 4 p.m. session concluded without announcement of an agreement. Such plea discussions are usually held behind closed doors.
“I have no update on a plea or a potential trial date,” said Lee Kindlon, one of Hussain’s defense attorneys. “However I can say that the conference
went well. Given the sensitive nature of the discussions around this case, I cannot comment further.”
Last week, attorneys for the relatives of those killed in the Oct. 6, 2018, crash said they’d been told a plea deal was in place and that their clients felt they were left out of the discussions of a possible plea bargain that they believe could spare Hussain, 30, from serving prison time.
The crash in the countryside outside of the village of Schoharie remains the nation’s deadliest transportation disaster in more than a decade. The Ford Excursion limo carrying 17 friends from Amsterdam to Cooperstown for a 30th birthday celebration ran a stop sign on Route 30 in Schoharie and crashed into an SUV in the parking lot of the Apple Barrel Country Store. The Excursion slammed into the side of a ditch after killing two pedestrians in the parking lot. The
A grand jury indicted Hussain on 20 counts each of criminally negligent homicide and seconddegree manslaughter. The manslaughter charges carry a maximum of five to 15 years in prison.
A forensics expert hired by the State Police ruled the crash was caused by a cataclysmic malfunction of the vehicle’s brakes due to long-term neglect. The 34-footlong limo showed “compelling evidence of the protracted history of neglect of proper inspection and maintenance, with specific emphasis expressed regarding braking system component deficiencies of the vehicle,” Brian F. Chase, chief forensics expert at Comprehensive Motor Vehicle Services and Consulting, found.
But an interview investigators did with a former manager at a Mavis Discount Tire outlet in Saratoga Springs gave a boost to the assertion by Hussain’s lawyers that he had no knowledge the limousine’s brakes were unsafe.
The former manager of at Mavis told investigators in September 2019 that the auto shop had falsified invoices and failed to perform critical brake work on the vehicle.
The alleged falsification of the records and the shop’s purported failure to perform work on the Excursion were part of a systemic practice at the auto service outlet as it tried to meet corporate sales quotas, according to court records. The defense contends Hussain trusted that the repair work was done and is expected to raise the matter to convince a jury he is not to blame.