Nauman Hussain, the man linked to the 2018 Schoharie limousine tragedy, is going to trial after all.
State Supreme Court Justice Peter Lynch last Wednesday rejected the plea agreement reached a year ago in which Hussain would have received no prison time for the disaster that claimed 20 lives.
Calling the plea deal “fundamentally flawed,” Judge Lynch gave Hussain the choice of serving one-and-one-third to four years in prison or withdrawing his guilty plea of last year.
His attorneys withdrew the plea.
Schoharie County District Attorney Susan Mallery had no comment about the decision but said the parties will meet September 14 to set a trial date.
Judge Lynch’s rejection, which came during Hussain’s sentencing, took everyone by surprise. The agreement a year ago––Hussain pleading guilty to 20 counts of criminally negligent homicide––would have put the case to rest, a move attorneys on both sides sought.
Also caught by surprise were parents of the victims. They were angered by the plea deal that sentenced Hussain to five years’ probation and 1,000 hours of community service––but no jail time.
With a trial ahead, there’s a chance Hussain could go to prison.
“I think everyone in the legal community was shocked,” Mike West, former Schoharie County district attorney and now county attorney, said of Judge Lynch’s rejection.
“Certainly the defendant was shocked. He doesn’t want to go to prison. Let a jury decide.”
But while Hussain could go to prison if convicted, there’s a chance he could also go free.
Judge George Bartlett, who presided over the agreement last year but has since retired, wrote then that the plea deal was appropriate because investigation after the crash “led to the discovery of information that weakened the District Attorney’s case.”
Nonetheless, Mr. West said, there’s a chance Hussain will be convicted.
“It’s probably an uphill battle for the defense,” he said. “The pieces are there [for the prosecution]. It’s a question of putting the puzzle together to convince a jury.”
Although the outcome of a trial is uncertain, many believe a trial will bring justice.
One of those is Congresswoman Elise Stefanik, who’ll represent Schoharie County if she wins re-election in November, and who recently met with parents of the limo crash victims.
“After years of waiting, these families deserve full accountability, and there is still significant work ahead to ensure justice,” she wrote in an emailed press release.
Hussain must “be held fully accountable and serve prison time for his involvement. . .”
Hussain was the operator of Prestige Limousine of Wilton, a firm that provided the 31-foot limo to take 17 friends from Amsterdam to Cooperstown for a celebration on October 6. 2018.
The vehicle lost its brakes on the steep Route 30 decline in Schoharie. Speeding at an estimated 100 miles per hour, the limo crossed Route 30A and crashed into a parked car near the Apple Barrel, killing the party of 17, the driver and two pedestrians.