Judge limits spending by suspect’s defender
KINGSTON, N.Y. » Ulster County Judge Donald A. Williams has said the attorney for vehicular manslaughter suspect John J. Ronk can spend no more than $6,000 to hire an accident-reconstruction expert to be used in defense of the man charged in the September crash that killed a 41-year-old bicyclist.
Jeremiah Flaherty, Ronk’s court-appointed defense lawyer, had asked to spend $8,800, but in court proceedings Wednesday, Williams said that was too much.
“These are public funds,” Williams said, adding that it sounded from Flaherty’s request that
the amount being sought “was just the beginning.”
“That is not just going to be the beginning,” the judge said. “It is going to be the end.
“The defendant has a right to an effective defense, but not the best possible defense that money can afford,” Williams added.
The judge said he would approve a request for additional funds if the expert witness is needed to testify at Ronk’s trial.
Ronk, 41, of 272 New Salem Road, Port Ewen, was charged
with the felony of aggravated vehicular manslaughter after the 2004 Nissan XTerra he was driving struck bicyclist Brian A. Jones, 41, of 208 New Salem Road, about 7:30 p.m. Sept. 14 near both men’s homes.
Ronk pleaded not guilty in November.
Authorities have said Ronk and Jones were heading in the same direction on New Salem Road in the Esopus, toward the hamlet of Port Ewen, and that Ronk’s vehicle veered into the opposite lane and struck Jones from behind.
Jones was thrown from his bike and died at the HealthAlliance Hospital’s Broadway Campus in Kingston soon after.
Authorities said Ronk’s bloodalcohol content was higher than 0.18, more than twice the state’s threshold for drunken driving, at the time of the crash.
Ronk has a previous conviction in a drunken-driving death.
He pleaded guilty in Dutchess County Court on Aug. 17, 2000, to vehicular manslaughter in connection with a crash in Rhinebeck the month before that killed 32-year-old Albert J. Glosque. Ronk was sentenced to one to three years in state prison and was released on July 1, 2002.
Ronk currently is being held in the Ulster County Jail without bail.