A grand jury on Thursday indicted a Florida woman who allegedly hit a Queens bicyclist in a fatal drunken-driving accident on Old Country Road.
Melissa McKiski, of Venice, Florida, is not allowed to leave Nassau, Suffolk or Queens counties without court permission after she was arraigned on an 11-count indictment stemming from the alleged hit-and-run on Mineola’s border with Garden City, prosecutors said.
The indictment includes four felonies, including second-degree manslaughter, six misdemeanor counts and a traffic infraction, prosecutors said. McKiski is due back in court Feb. 23.
“A young man, with his entire life in front of him, was taken from his family and friends due to the alleged drunk driving of this defendant,” Nassau County District Attorney Madeline Singas said in a statement.
Around 12:35 a.m. Oct. 1, prosecutors said, McKiski was driving west on Old Country Road west of Glen Cove Road when she veered from the middle lane into the right lane.
She allegedly hit 22-year-old Charles Velasquez of Bellerose, Queens, who was riding his bicycle with two others, and then fled.
Police later arrested McKiski at Herricks Road and Helen Road in Mineola, prosecutors said.
Velasquez’s bike flew into a nearby shopping center parking lot and his companions called 911, prosecutors said.
He was taken to Winthrop-University Hospital in Mineola, where he was pronounced dead around 4:30 a.m.
McKiski is out on $50,000 bail. John Carman, her Garden City-based attorney, could not be immediately reached for comment.
Carman told Newsday, “This is one of those all too common cases that’s a tragedy for both families.”
