Driver cleared in death of teen

Insufficient evidence to support charge, special prosecutor says

A driver who struck and killed a teenage pedestrian on Lucas Avenue in the town of Ulster this past June has been cleared of the criminally negligent homicide charge against her, the special prosecutor in the case said Tuesday.

An Ulster County grand jury found insufficient evidence to continue the case against Kerhonkson resident Carol Melamed, according to prosecutor Paul Gruner.

“Obviously this was a tragic accident, but the grand jury found there just wasn’t enough evidence to sustain that charge,” Gruner said. “Frankly, there wasn’t.”

Melamed was driving a 2007 Infinity southbound on Lucas Avenue in the town of Ulster about 2:30 p.m. June 22 when she went onto the shoulder near Spring Lake Drive and struck Jennifer Curry, 17, of Kingston.

Curry was walking north on the shoulder when she was struck.

Curry was declared dead at HealthAlliance Hospital’s Broadway Campus in Kingston.

Melamed was charged with criminally negligent homicide on Aug. 11. The crime is a felony punishable by up to four years in state prison.

Gruner said evidence and testimony provided to the grand jury pointed to driver inattention, but he said there was no indication of alcohol impairment or erratic or dangerous driving.

Blood tests “revealed nothing that would have affected [her] ability to operate the vehicle,” he said. “She was not impaired in any respect.”

Gruner said three or four police officers who responded to the scene and had “direct contact [with Melamed] within minutes observed no evidence of impairment.”

The prosecutor said a state police accident reconstruction team determined Melamed was traveling at 29 to 34 mph in a 35-mph zone. He said she had stopped on

Lucas Avenue shortly before the incident to make a cell phone call and pulled back onto the road after the call was complete.

“We could not prove phone operation at the time of actual impact,” Gruner said.

The Ulster County Sheriff’s Office said at the time that Curry was walking to the Stewart’s store on Lucas Avenue to pick up something for a relative when she was struck.

Gruner, a former Ulster County public defender, said he was appointed special prosecutor in the case at the request of the county District Attorney’s Office due to a conflict involving the office. He said he did not know the nature of the conflict.