James: Reinstate trooper charge
Driver ran after traffic stop, officer allegedly rammed minivan, flipping it; girl, 11, killed
ALBANY — State Attorney General Letitia James will attempt to get a murder charge reinstated against a state trooper accused of killing an 11-year-old girl during a highspeed chase on the state Thruway.
Trooper Christopher Baldner was indicted by a grand jury on second-degree murder and other charges in October 2021 for allegedly ramming the minivan carrying Monica Goods in December 2020, causing the vehicle to crash and killing the young girl. Attorneys for Baldner argued the evidence didn’t support the charges and Ulster County Judge Bryan Rounds threw out the murder charge and reduced charges to reckless endangerment.
A representative from the attorney general’s office said Wednesday night that prosecutors would appeal Rounds’ decision, a move urged by Monica Goods’ mother and her attorneys.
The girl was a passenger in a minivan driven by her father, Tristin Goods, who was pulled over by Baldner on the Thruway near Kingston as he drove with her, her 12-year-old sister and his wife from Brooklyn to Syracuse. At some point, Baldner allegedly pepper-sprayed the father, who took off, leading to a chase that James’ office said reached speeds of 130 mph.
Baldner allegedly twice rammed the minivan, causing it to flip several times after the second impact, killing Monica.
A lawsuit filed by Michelle Surrency, Monica’s mother, who was not in the minivan, states Monica was crushed beneath the minivan as it flipped, and Tristina Goods, her sister, was aware her sister had just died. An attorney for Surrency said Tristina was still under treatment more than two years after the crash.
The attorney general is charged with investigating the deaths of civilians by police, and Baldner was indicted on seconddegree murder and seconddegree manslaughter charges, as well as six counts of first-degree reckless endangerment.
Three of the reckless endangerment charges are related to a separate incident in 2019 where Baldner allegedly rammed another minivan on the Thruway, causing it to spin into the highway median.
Rounds dismissed the murder charge and reduced the other charges last week after Baldner’s attorneys successfully argued Baldner did not display a “depraved indifference to human life” during the pursuit, relying on a precedent set by a police pursuit outside New Paltz.
Baldner, 44, a resident of Greene County, still faces second-degree manslaughter and reckless endangerment charges in the case. The former carries a maximum of 15 years in prison.