(Luis Cornelio, Headline USA) N.J. Attorney General Matthew Platkin, a Democrat, has initiated an investigation into a fatal car crash involving Nadine Menendez, the wife of Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., after startling allegations of potential political interference in the initial police inquiry. The 2018 crash tragically resulted in the death of Richard Koop.
JUST IN: News 12 New Jersey has obtained security video from a 2018 incident where Sen. Menendez’s wife Nadine Arslanian struck and killed a pedestrian.
MORE: https://t.co/VoyQH7weel pic.twitter.com/TRtFwfgk5y— News12NJ (@News12NJ) October 4, 2023
The investigation comes in the wake of a scathing report, which raised questions about whether Sen. Menendez may have played a role in influencing the outcome of the police investigation into the incident.
In response to these allegations, the attorney general’s office seized documents from the Bergen County police on Thursday, aiming to ascertain if the probe was conducted without political interference.
As reported by the Times, the incident unfolded when Menendez drove her car into Koop, whose body was thrown off the curb. According to reports, she was swiftly released without a summons following the arrival of a retired police officer at the scene, who had allegedly been called by a friend.
Menendez was purportedly en route to meet a group of friends, including a retired Hackensack police officer, who was the individual who ultimately appeared at the accident site. Official records allege that Menendez was “not at fault” in the crash and that Koop had both marijuana and alcohol in his system.
But Koop’s family questioned the veracity of the initial probe into their sibling’s tragic death.
“The family really has had serious concerns over what we felt was a very sparse, one-sided investigation,” said Rosemarie Koop-Angelicola, a family member. “Definitely a lack of legal enthusiasm to take this case, definite lack of media coverage, and a lack of communication by the authorities of Bergen County. We felt that the whole thing was very silently swept under the rug.”
Adding a disturbing layer to the allegations, a federal indictment alleged that Sen. Menendez engaged in an illegal acquisition of a new vehicle for his wife. The indictment claimed that Menendez offered assistance in a criminal investigation of a New Jersey businessman in exchange for a Mercedes Benz car valued at $50,000.
