Jessica Beauvais, 32, has been indicted by a Queens grand jury charging her with aggravated manslaughter, vehicular manslaughter and other crimes for allegedly driving while intoxicated and striking a New York City Highway Police Officer on the Long Island Expressway in the early morning hours of April 27, 2021. The responding officer was struck with such force he was thrown nearly 40 feet in the air.
Beauvais, 32, of Myrtle Avenue in Hempstead, Long Island, will be arraigned on May 25, 2021 in Queens Supreme Court on a 13-count indictment charging her with aggravated manslaughter in the second degree, manslaughter in the second degree, aggravated criminally negligent homicide, vehicular manslaughter in the second degree, leaving the scene of an incident without reporting, unlawful fleeing a police officer in a motor vehicle in the second and third degree, 2-counts of operating a motor vehicle while under influence of alcohol, operating a motor vehicle while impaired by combined use of drugs or of alcohol and drugs, reckless driving, aggravated unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle in the third degree and failure to exercise due care when operating a motor vehicle when approaching an authorized emergency vehicle. If convicted, Beauvais faces up to 15 years in prison.
According to documents, around 12:30 a.m. on April 27, 2021, police responded to the scene of a one-car crash on the Long Island Expressway ramp entrance to the Clearview Expressway. A driver, who was headed eastbound on the LIE, lost control of the car and slammed into a concrete wall. The automobile caught fire and the driver and two passengers were pulled from the vehicle. They survived, however, a third passenger died at the scene.
Continuing, the DA said, NYPD officers responded to the scene of the crash and as they began to investigate Detective Tsakos assisted with traffic flow. At that time, defendant Beauvais – behind the wheel of a 2013 Volkswagen Passat – was going eastbound on the LIE. The defendant was allegedly driving at a high rate of speed as she approached the scene of the one-car crash.
According to the charges, the defendant allegedly struck Detective Tsakos. The impact of the nearly two-ton car threw the officer in the air briefly before he landed in a nearby patch of grass. Beauvais allegedly did not stop or slow down after striking the victim and continued to travel several exits before taking the Horace Harding Expressway off ramp. That’s when her vehicle jumped the curb and mounted the sidewalk, where police surrounded the defendant in the vehicle. Beauvais then allegedly attempted to flee the scene. She put her car in reverse and rammed the police vehicle behind her once before coming to a full stop. Members of the NYPD then immediately arrested the defendant.
According to the charges, DA Katz said, the defendant was taken to the 112th Police Precinct where she submitted to an intoxilyzer test, which was administered over 2 hours following the fatal crash. The results of the test showed the defendant allegedly had a blood alcohol content of .15 – which is above the legal limit of .08 in New York State.
Officer Tsakos was rushed to a nearby hospital but died as a result of the injuries.
Before the deadly crash, Beauvais took shots of alcohol and gave an anti-police rant on her podcast.
“We can fight the police too. If you’re going to shoot me, get it over with. What I’m saying you’re not going to try me while I’m still breathing,” Beauvais said. “Like N.W.A say about the police—if you’re going to kill me, at least I get to take someone with me. I’m one of those people. If I’m going to go, someone is coming.”
“I know 13-year-olds from the hood that know a Taser from a gun. I know mother f**** know a BB gun from a Taser from a gun. How come you can’t figure that out.”
She ended the podcast by saying, “and until then, fuck the police.”
The investigation was conducted by Detectives Patrick McMahon, Walter Bowden and Edward Behringer of the New York City Police Department’s Collision Investigation Squad under the supervision of Sergeant Robert Denig. Also assisting in the investigation were Assistant District Attorneys Bryan Kotowski, of the Homicide Bureau, and John Kosinski, Deputy Bureau Chief of Homicide.
Assistant District Attorney Gregory Lasak of the District Attorney’s Career Criminals Major Crimes Bureau is prosecuting the case, under the supervision of Assistant District Attorneys Shawn Clark, Bureau Chief, and Michael Whitney, Deputy Bureau Chief, and under the overall supervision of Executive Assistant District Attorney for Major Crimes Daniel A. Saunders.
