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Ex-officer receives 5 year prison sentence
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August 30, 2012
Hartford, Connecticut: An ex-officer will be serving 5 years in prison for the death of a 15 year old boy killed in an off-duty fatal car crash.[1]
Former Windsor Locks police officer Michael Koistinen, 26, was told by a judge that he should have known better than anyone else about drinking alcohol and then driving.[1]
Koistinen was reported drinking for over several hours and then proceeded to drive in excess speeds of 70 mph in a 35 mph zone and struck Windsor Locks High School sophomore Henry Dang, throwing the boy nearly 200 feet. Henry Dang had been on his way home, riding his bike from a friend's house around midnight on October 30, 2010.[1]
In a courtroom filled with the family and friends of Henry Dang, Koistinen apologized, saying, "I'm extremely sorry, and I never meant this to happen."[1]
Koistinen's lawyer, Raymond Hassett, felt that Koistinen is a compassionate and soft-spoken young man who will forever live with the guilt of what he had done, and that the whole case was an, "an epic confluence of disastrous circumstances."[1]
Henry Dang's family scolded Koistinen for his actions, and in a statement read in court by prosecutor John Fahey, called him "selfish and cold-hearted,"[1] and that Koistinen will never be deserving of their forgiveness. "Michael took something precious and priceless from us. Our lives will never be the same,"[1] the Dang family statement read.
Michael Koistinen was sentenced by Hartford Superior Court Judge Joan Alexander to five years and four months in prison, in addition to serving five years probation and performing 100 hours of community service after he serves his prison term. During his probation period he will be banned from alcohol usage, any and all illegal drugs, and will be subject to a random urine testing. In his community service, the Dang family have requested that Koistinen speak about and make others aware of the potential dangers of drunken driving.[1]
Koistinen's punishment was part of a plea bargain between prosecutors and himself and he pleaded in June of 2012 no contest to second-degree manslaughter and evidence tampering.[1]
Koistinen and his father, former Windsor Locks police Sergeant Robert Koistinen, have been fired. Robert Koistinen has also been arrested and has been awaiting trial on charges of hindering the investigation. A state police investigation reports that he drove his son Michael Koistinen away from the crash site and then later prevented the investigating officer from obtaining a blood sample of Michael Koistinen during his treatments at a hospital.[1]
Authorities are not able to charge Michael Koistinen for drunken driving as there was no blood tests taken and a urine sample was destroyed by hospital officials under hospital policy before the police were able to obtain a search warrant for his medical records.[1]
The Dang family, against Michael Koistinen and a former tavern owner for $420,000, have settled a wrongful death suit.[1]
See also
Footnotes
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