Colonia man pleads not guilty in officer's death
BY KATHY CHANG Staff Writer

NEW BRUNSWICK — Five days after a 31-year-old Perth Amboy police officer died and another officer was seriously injured in a two-car motor vehicle collision at the intersection of Green Street and Route 1 in Woodbridge, police arrested and charged a 23-year-old Colonia man with a second-degree count of vehicular homicide and two counts of assault by auto in the third degree.

Sean McGuirk voluntarily turned himself in at Woodbridge Police headquarters at 8:45 p.m. Aug. 27, where he was arrested on the criminal complaints.

His bail was set at $100,000 with no 10 percent option. He posted bail approximately an hour later and was released from custody.

The next day, Aug. 28, McGuirk appeared with his Woodbridge-based attorney, David Shivas, before state Superior Court Judge Bradley Ferencz sitting in New Brunswick, and entered a not guilty plea to the charges, in front of more than a dozen or so of Raji's family and friends, including his wife Marisol "Mimi" (Jimenez) Raji, who is expecting their first child and is also a Perth Amboy police officer. McGuirk wept as Assistant Prosecutor Nicholas Sewitch read the charges against him.

The judge granted the assistant prosecutor's request to suspend McGuirk's driving privileges until the charges are resolved, authorities said.

The two criminal complaints were signed by Woodbridge Patrolman James Chessere alleging that McGuirk drove his vehicle, a 2008 Nissan Altima, recklessly, causing the death of Police Officer Thomas Raji, who had been with the Perth Amboy police department since December 1999, as well as causing serious bodily injury to Police Officer Matthew Mercurio, 42, and Gregory Efford, 37.

According to the investigation, which authorities say is ongoing, McGuirk's vehicle was traveling westbound on Green Street when he entered the intersection of Route 1 at 3:48 a.m., Aug. 22. While he was crossing the southbound lanes, he struck a marked Perth Amboy police car, a 2005 Ford Crown Victoria, that was traveling southbound on Route 1.

The police car was driven by Raji. He was transported to Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital, New Brunswick, where he was pronounced dead at 4:42 a.m. Mercurio, who was in the front seat, received serious injuries and was taken by ambulance to the same hospital. He suffered broken ribs, authorities said.

The two officers were traveling southbound on Route 1 transporting Efford, a male prisoner, from the Rahway Police Department to the Middlesex County Adult Correction Center in North Brunswick when the crash occurred. The prisoner had been arrested in Rahway on an outstanding warrant from Perth Amboy. Efford suffered broken ribs, authorities said.

McGuirk, brother of a Woodbridge police officer, was not injured in the crash and voluntarily offered a blood sample, authorities said.

The probable cause in the complaints allege that McGuirk operated his vehicle while intoxicated with a blood alcohol concentration of at least 0.107 percent and that he disregarded two red traffic lights at the major intersection, authorities said. The legal limit is 0.08.

According to the complaints, the allegations are based on the results of a toxicological analysis performed on the defendant's blood, statements of witnesses, a video recording from the police car, and the results of the police investigation.

Raji is the second officer to die in a car crash in Middlesex County within 10 days. North Brunswick Police Lt. Christopher Zerby, 41, of Robbinsville, died on Aug. 12 of multiple blunt force injuries to the head and chest when the vehicle he was in struck a utility pole as he and Police Lt. Keith Buckley were traveling on Route 130. The two officers were on duty and not in a township-owned vehicle.

The investigation is continuing. Anyone with information about the case is asked to call Investigator Jeffrey Temple of the Middlesex County Prosecutor's Office at 732-745-3373, or Woodbridge Patrolman James Chessere at 732-634-7700.