Biker's road record foretold fatal crash
By Chris McKenna
Times Herald-Record
cmckenna@th-record.com
Woodbury – If traffic stops and tickets are supposed to slow speeders down, the strategy seems to have had little effect on Michael Abrams.
Abrams, who crashed his motorcycle into a car while tearing away from police July 29, killing himself and the 24-year-old car driver, had gotten at least 32 tickets for speeding, reckless driving and lesser offenses in the seven years he'd been allowed to operate a motor vehicle, court records show.
The litany is striking for someone who was only 22 years old. Speeding in Goshen. Speeding in Harriman. Riding 60 mph in a 30-mph zone in Warwick. Doing 80 in Woodbury.
At least 19 times, state troopers and local police stopped Abrams and wrote tickets for whatever he'd been doing wrong while driving his car, motorcycle or all-terrain vehicle.
But those citations didn't slow him down and never cost him his license, which was valid at the time of his fateful crash on Route 32.
Each time Abrams went to court, he paid a fine or saw his tickets dismissed. He then left to speed again.
"It just crushes me to know how he was able to get away with all that," said Bryan Pekarek, the 33-year-old fiance of Aline Filippone, the car driver killed in the crash.
"I just know how he affected my life and Aline's family and how his actions ripped our lives apart. Aline and I were going to be getting married and starting a business together."
No one is to blame for the accident except Abrams, who was seen riding a wheelie through Woodbury shortly before the crash, town police said. But the question of why he still had a driver's license has caused anger and anguish since it was initially reported that town police alone had written Abrams 14 tickets since 1999.
A broader examination of his driving record, through court records, shows he actually had many more than 14. While many were for infractions such as not wearing a seat belt or failing to signal, seven of the tickets were for speeding and three were for reckless driving.
At the time of the accident in Woodbury, he still had a driver's license simply because he hadn't accumulated enough points in an 18-month period for it be suspended.
It could have happened, based on the tickets he got, court records suggest. But at several junctures, in different courts with different police departments, citations that would have resulted in a suspension were either dropped or reduced, for reasons lost to time.
There's nothing unusual about police officers reducing tickets when drivers contest them in court. It's a time-saving practice in traffic court: The defendant pleads guilty to a lesser offense, pays a fine and, the theory goes, leaves with renewed respect for the law.
"The officer's goal," Woodbury police Chief Robert Kwiatkowski said, "is to get individuals to comply with the law."
But why Abrams continued to receive that courtesy after racking up more and more tickets cannot be fully explained.
One factor in 2004, when he was ticketed at least four times in three towns, might have been that cops and prosecutors didn't know about the tickets pending against him in other courts and couldn't weigh them into their decisions.
Another factor, Kwiatkowski said, is that officers might have concluded that they didn't have enough evidence to prove the charges.
In hindsight, it can be seen how little impact the usually sobering experience of going to court had on Abrams, who told police he loved the "adrenaline rush" of speeding.
On Oct. 5, he went to court in Monroe to contest a ticket he got for driving 48 mph in a 30-mph zone. The ticket was dismissed.
One day later, he was back on the road, in trouble with the law. A Warwick town police officer passing through Greenwood Lake said he spotted Abrams riding a wheelie on his motorcycle down the main drag, doing 60 mph in a 30-mph zone. He wrote Abrams seven tickets, including ones for speeding, reckless driving and riding without a motorcycle license. The speeding and reckless driving tickets were later reduced to lesser offenses.
Could police have been stricter with Abrams over the years?
Kwiatkowski said he didn't know.
"All I know is it's too late for Michael and for that innocent victim," he said. "Sometimes cops do their jobs right and bad things still happen."
Asked if, in retrospect, he would have done anything differently, Kwiatkowski said: "I'm still wrestling with that. I'm still questioning myself how I'm going to handle the future Michael Abrams when we come in contact with him."
How they were handled
Here is a list of the most serious driving offenses for which Michael Abrams was ticketed in Orange County and how the tickets were handled.
Speeding
Nov. 24, 1999, Goshen. 77 mph in a 55 mph zone (6 points). Convicted Feb. 10, 2000.
Oct. 8, 2001. Woodbury. 65/55 (3 points). Convicted Feb. 22, 2002, and fined $60.
Feb. 26, 2002, Harriman. 46/30 (4 points). Convicted May 2, 2002, and fined $100.
March 30, 2002, Monroe. 45/30 (4 points). Dismissed July 10, 2002.
March 7, 2004, Monroe. 48/30 (4 points). Dismissed Oct. 5, 2004.
Aug. 6, 2004, Woodbury. 80/55 (6 points). Dismissed Jan. 14, 2005.
Oct. 6, 2004, Greenwood Lake. 60/30 (6 points). Reduced to disobeying a traffic device (2 points) on Dec. 14, 2004.
Reckless driving (5 points)
May 11, 2001, Woodbury. Reduced to "driving left of center" (3 points) on Sept. 28, 2001, and fined $50.
Aug. 6, 2004, Woodbury. Dismissed Jan. 14, 2005.
Oct. 6, 2004, Greenwood Lake. Reduced to disorderly conduct (no points) on Dec. 14, 2004.
Failure to yield right-of-way (3 points)
April 3, 2000, Woodbury. Dismissed Oct. 24, 2000.
Aug. 3, 2001, Woodbury. Dismissed Nov. 27, 2001.
Failure to signal (3 points)
Oct. 8, 1999, Woodbury. Convicted Oct. 20, 1999, and fined $50.
Driving left of center (3 points)
Oct. 25, 2002, Cornwall. Dismissed Jan. 29, 2003.
Failure to comply with order (2 points)
Aug. 6, 2004, Woodbury. Convicted Jan. 14, 2005, and fined $50.
The point system
Drivers convicted of certain vehicle offenses in New York are given points, which remain on their license for 18 months. The worse the offense, the more the points. When a driver accumulates 11 or more points, the state Department of Motor Vehicles automatically suspends his or her license.
Although he collected more than 11 points over the years, Michael Abrams of Central Valley never lost his license because he never crossed that threshold in an 18-month period.
He was teetering at 10 points when he walked into court in Monroe in July 2002, facing a speeding ticket that would have added four more points. But that ticket was dismissed.
Having earned no points in 2003, Abrams started last year with a clean slate. But in August and October, he was given tickets that carried enough points to suspend his license. In both cases, the most serious tickets were either dismissed or reduced to lesser offenses when he went to court.
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