by Timothy Bolger on October
14, 2014
New York City police officer
was sentenced Tuesday to 1 ⅓ to 4 years in prison
for killing a 13-year-old girl with mental disabilities in a hit-and-run crash
in Levittown.
Michael Elardo had pleaded
guilty in August at Nassau County court to leaving the scene of an accident.
Prosecutors have said that the
48-year-old Syosset man was driving a Town and Country minivan eastbound on
Hempstead Turnpike when he struck Bryanna Soplin near the corner of Gardiners
Avenue and fled the scene shortly after midnight on June 15.
The victim, who had reportedly
left her family’s home without their knowledge, died at Nassau University
Medical Center hours later.
Elardo surrendered to Homicide
Squad detectives a day after the crash and initially pleaded not guilty but
later admitted to the crime.
