NYPD sergeant charged with killing NYC doorman in drunk driving crash

An NYPD sergeant was hit with criminal charges for killing an Upper East Side doorman during a drunken wrong-way crash on a state parkway, the New York Attorney General’s Office said Monday.

Tiffany Howell allegedly had a blood alcohol content of .26 — almost three times the legal limit — when she rammed head on into 61-year-old Manuel Boitel’s vehicle on the Taconic State Parkway on Jan. 22, prosecutors said.

Howell, who was off-duty at the time of the collision, was indicted on charges including aggravated vehicular homicide and manslaughter, according to the AG’s office, which handles the prosecutions of police officers accused of killing someone.

Westchester County Court Judge George Fufidio set her bail at $100,000 cash during her arraignment on the charges.   

“Her actions driving highly intoxicated in the wrong direction of a parkway killed Manuel Boitel,” Assistant Attorney General Allison Stuart said in court, according to The Journal News.

“She had no regard for his life, or of any other life for that matter, as she drove into oncoming traffic.”

The 47-year-old cop was traveling back from an NYPD Holy Name Society benefit in Greenburgh to her Warwick, Orange County, home when she started going south in the northbound lanes, prosecutors said.

Boitel was driving home to Peekskill from his job at around 11:40 p.m. when he Howell allegedly slammed into his car, traveling at around 50 mph, under the 55-mile speed limit, according to the AG’s office.

Howell’s lawyer, Andrew Quinn, said in court that the “nature of these allegations is just a stark departure from the behavior and characteristics she’s displayed her entire life” as he and the state argued over bail in court, The Journal News reported.

The NYPD said Howell, an 18-year veteran of the force, was suspended without pay.

She could spent up to 25 years in prison if convicted of the most serious charge.

Boitel was remembered as a dedicated married father who had dreamed of being a police officer.

“He was always the first to help others, often putting the needs of those around him before his own,” loved ones wrote on a fundraising page to support his kin, saying that his death “has left a huge void in our family.”

“The irony is that he regularly donated to funds supporting police officers, as he always dreamed of becoming one himself.”