Possible plea deal roils Schoharie limo case
Prosecutors may be worried about sending Hussain to a jury trial, victims’ families say
A potential plea deal in the criminal case against the operator of the stretch limousine at the center of the October 2018 crash that killed 20 people may be the result of worries that prosecutors could fail to win a guilty verdict from a jury due to the complexity of the case, according to the victims’ families and their attorneys.
One of the chief problems confronting Schoharie County District Attorney Susan Mallery in her prosecution of Nauman Hussain, the limo company’s operator: the role that a Mavis Discount Tire outlet in Saratoga Springs played in doing repair work to the brakes on the stretch Ford Excursion, as well as the shop’s alleged decision to slap a state inspection sticker on the limo just months
before the tragedy without actually inspecting the vehicle.
Families of the victims and their attorneys who have spoken to Mallery have been led to believe that any plea deal struck with Hussain would not involve prison time — a prospect that does not sit well with many of the families, who say they want him to go to trial. Hussain has been charged with 20 counts each of criminally negligent homicide and manslaughter; he has pleaded not guilty to all counts, and has remained free as the case has proceeded.
The initial trial date was pushed back from last fall to this spring, and then delayed again by the coronavirus pandemic. No trial date is currently set.
“I don’t want this guy to get a plea deal; I want him to go to trial,” Mary Ashton, the mother of crash victim Michael Ukaj, told the Times Union on Tuesday from her home in Maine. “Twenty people are dead — this guy should go to trial.”
Mallery did not return a call Tuesday seeking comment on a potential plea deal. A court conference is scheduled to take place Wednesday involving Mallery, Schoharie County Court Judge George Bartlett III and Hussain’s defense attorneys; the session will be conducted virtually and will not be open to the public.
Ashton and attorneys involved in the civil lawsuits filed against the Hussain family and Mavis acknowledge that the possible plea deal, while details remain uncertain, would involve Hussain receiving probation and a prison sentence limited to time served under his bail conditions.
Although the details of a potential plea deal may have been talked about between Mallery and Hussain’s attorneys, the final arrangement would have to be approved by Bartlett.
“I can’t comment on a plea agreement that doesn’t exist,” said Lee Kindlon, one of Hussain’s attorneys, on Tuesday.
Ashton said that Mallery has not shared any details about a potential plea deal, but that during a previous conference call with victims’ families, the district attorney confirmed that talks were taking place with Hussain’s attorneys.
Ashton and her husband say they worry there are other factors pushing Mallery toward a plea deal, such as the desire of two state agencies to keep their handling of Hussain’s company out of the news.
The couple also worry that Hussain’s wealthy relatives in Pakistan — Hussain’s father, a longtime FBI informant, has asserted he is the brother of Malik Riaz Hussain, one of Pakistan’s richest businessmen — have also added to prosecutors’ anxiety.
The Ford Excursion was taking 17 friends from Amsterdam to Cooperstown for a birthday party when it blew through a stop sign on Route 30 in Schoharie and crashed into the parking lot of the Apple Barrel Country Store, killing two pedestrians before slamming into the side of a ravine. All 18 limo occupants, including the driver, died.
Prosecutors contend that Hussain, 30, knew the limo was dangerous after it had failed two state Department of Transportation inspections in the
months leading up to the disaster; he was also aware that the driver he assigned to the job that day was not properly licensed. Hussain has said he was put in charge of his father’s limo business after Shahed Hussain moved to Pakistan in early 2018.
A State Police forensic report on the crash blamed the tragedy on catastrophic brake failure, although attorneys for the families assert that employees of the Mavis store on Broadway in Saratoga Springs that serviced the limo knew that the Excursion was a “death trap” due to its failing brakes. In the end, only some of the brake parts were replaced after the limo failed a 2018 inspection by the state DOT.
Attorneys representing the victims’ families say they believe that the actions of Mavis, which has denied any wrongdoing, may have shaken Mallery’s confidence in the case. All declined comment since no details of an actual plea deal have been released.
They noted, however, that by avoiding trial, the state would avoid any embarrassing testimony that might come out regarding the DOT or the state Department of Motor Vehicle’s handing of the company in the months that preceded the crash. DOT twice ordered the limo off the road after the two failed inspections, although it never impounded the limo or seized its license plates — an action the state took against other limo companies after the Schoharie disaster, the deadliest U.S. traffic incident in more than a decade.
Ukaj, Ashton’s son, went to high school in Maine and got his college degree from Fulton-montgomery Community College; he lived in Caroga Lake at the time of the crash.
He had served as a combat Marine. “He suffered through mortar fire while his comrades died,” Ashton said. “My son cannot speak for himself anymore. I am going to do anything I can to bring [Hussain] to trial.”