Woodbridge Twp. man indicted for fatal crash
Colonia resident could get up to 30 years if convicted
BY KATHY CHANG Staff Writer
AMiddlesex County grand jury indicted a 24-year-old Colonia man Dec. 12 on charges of aggravated manslaughter, vehicular homicide, aggravated assault, and assault by auto.

The charges stem from a two-car motor vehicle collision that occurred in the early morning hours of Aug. 22 that caused the death of Perth Amboy Police Officer Thomas Raji, 31, and left Police Officer Matthew Mercurio, 43, and Gregory Efford, 37, seriously injured.

If convicted, Sean McGuirk could face up to 30 years in prison. He remains free on $100,000 bail.

McGuirk had been issued two criminal complaints — a second-degree count of vehicular homicide and two counts of assault by auto in the third degree —alleging that he drove his vehicle, a 2008 Nissan Altima, recklessly, causing the death of Raji, who had been with the Perth Amboy Police Department since 1999, as well as causing serious bodily injury to Mercurio and Efford.

On Aug. 28, the 24-year-old wept as he appeared with his Woodbridge-based attorney, David Shivas, before state Superior Court Judge Bradley Ferencz, sitting in New Brunswick, to enter a not-guilty plea to the charges.

Raji's wife, Marisol, who is also a Perth Amboy police officer and is expecting their first child, was in attendance, as well as over a dozen or so of Raji's family and friends at the hearing.

The probable cause in the complaints against McGuirk allege that he 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.

According to the investigation, McGuirk's vehicle, a Nissan Altima, 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, which 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 of the police car, 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.