Mom wants dismissal of murder charge against trooper appealed
Monica Goods, 11, was killed after alleged ramming of minivan she was riding in
KINGSTON — The mother of a girl killed when State Police Trooper Christopher Baldner allegedly rammed a minivan during a high-speed chase on the state Thruway wants the state attorney general to appeal Thursday’s court decision dismissing many of the charges filed against him.
Monica Goods, a Brooklyn resident who was only 11 when she died, was partially ejected from the rolling minivan after Baldner allegedly rammed it at 130 mph on Dec. 22, 2020. Attorney General Letitia James’ office investigated and a grand jury indicted Baldner on a second-degree murder charge and six counts of reckless endangerment, but Ulster County Court Judge Brian Rounds dismissed the murder charge and reduced the reckless endangerment charges on Thursday after Baldner’s attorneys appealed.
Baldner, who has been suspended without pay, still faces a manslaughter charge and six counts of second-degree reckless endangerment.
Sanford Rubenstein, who has successfully sued New York City in the Abner Louima and Sean Bell cases and currently represents Michelle Surrency, Monica’s mother, said the girl’s family was urging James to appeal the local court decision.
Surrency has filed lawsuits against Baldner in state and federal courts.
“There are issues ... of fact that a jury should decide regarding the murder count in the indictment and we hope that the appeals court will see it differently than Judge Rounds,” he said.
Rubenstein noted Baldner was aware there were two young children in the car when he rammed it, calling the move “negligent,” and said Tristina Goods, Monica’s 12-year-old sister who was also in the minivan, was “still under treatment” more than two years after the crash.
Joseph O’connor, who represents the driver of the other vehicle, Tristin Goods, said though he respected the court, he “wholeheartedly” disagreed with Rounds’ decision.
Baldner allegedly pepper-sprayed Goods after an argument during a traffic stop, then the father took off. Baldner allegedly rammed the minivan twice before it rolled and crashed into a guardrail.
“If that’s not depraved indifference, that statute shouldn’t exist,” O’connor said.
The attorney also took issue with defense attorneys’ comparison of the Baldner case to that of Ryan Williams, who was initially charged with the same crime as Baldner — second-degree “depraved indifference” murder — for killing another motorist while fleeing police outside New Paltz in 2018. William’s charge was reduced to manslaughter on appeal, and Baldner’s attorneys successfully argued William’s case was similar to Baldner’s and the trooper’s top charge should likewise be dismissed.
While Williams’ was actively trying to avoid hitting other cars as he sped from police, “a jury could infer that the trooper was not trying to evade contact, but intentionally caused the contact,” O’connor said.
“Whatever they say about my client, whether he responded appropriately to the police — there’s a lot of factors there, but you can’t have people ramming cars with little kids in the back at 130 miles an hour,” he added.
Stephen Coffey, one of the attorneys representing Baldner, applauded Rounds’ decision. He said the legal team “was not confident” the entire indictment would be dismissed, as they requested in their motion, but said dismissing the murder charge was a natural decision.
“It’s not a murder case, never was,” Coffey said. “They way over-indicted him.”
He called the attorney general’s move to charge Baldner with murder “a political decision.”
“When you have a prosecutor ... they’re a legal office and they’re a political office,” he said. “Never forget that. And the political becomes as important as the legal.”
The attorney general’s office said it is reviewing the judge’s ruling.
If convicted of second-degree manslaughter, Baldner faces a maximum sentence of five to 15 years in prison. Seconddegree murder carries a maximum sentence of 25 years to life.