Colonia man faces 8 years in death of Perth Amboy officer
Sean McGuirk to be sentenced on Aug. 17
BY KATHY CHANG Staff Writer
Through sobs, a 24-year-old Colonia man voluntarily admitted today in state Superior Court that he was solely responsible through his actions for the death of a 31-year-old Perth Amboy police officer and for the critical injuries that were sustained by another officer during a two-car motor vehicle accident last August.

PHOTO BY TONY KURDZUK/THE STAR-LEDGER Sean McGuirk

In front of dozens of Perth Amboy police officers, Police Officer Thomas Raji's wife Marisol "Mimi" (Jimenez) Raji, and in front of his own family, Sean McGuirk pleaded guilty to vehicular homicide and two counts of assault by auto.

"Did you leave the Big Shots [Bar & Grill] intoxicated?" Assistant Prosecutor Nicholas Sewitch asked McGuirk at the hearing.

In a voice barely audible, McGuirk nodded and said, "Yes."

"I got into my car around 3:45 a.m. and crossed Route 1 where I struck a vehicle, which I later learned was a police vehicle," he said.

"Do you understand that because of the impact, Perth Amboy Police Officer Thomas Raji, was killed?" asked Sewitch.

"Yes," sobbed McGuirk, who was neatly dressed in a black suit.

McGuirk consulted with his attorney Raymond Brown Jr., of Greenbaum, Rowe, Smith and Davis LLP based in Woodbridge, before entering the plea agreement with the state.

The agreement comes seven months since he was indicted by a Middlesex County grand jury on charges of aggravated manslaughter, vehicular homicide, aggravated assault, and assault by auto. If the case had went to trial and if McGuirk had been convicted, he could have had faced up to 30 years in prison.

He remains free on $100,000 bail.

Under the agreement, three counts will be dropped during his sentencing, which include aggravated manslaughter and two counts of aggravated assault.

McGuirk is expected to be sentenced to a maximum of eight years in prison and is subject to the No Early Release Act, which court officials said means the 24-year-old must serve at least 6¾ years before his release from prison. He will be sentenced Aug. 17.

Sewitch asked Middlesex County Superior Court Judge Frederick DeVesa sitting in New Brunswick that upon McGuirk's release, his driver's license be suspended for five years. The judge agreed and added that McGuirk would also be subject to mandatory fines, which range from $1,000 to $1,200.

McGuirk said he arrived at the Big Shots Bar & Grill located on Route 1 in Avenel around 11 p.m. and admitted that he left the bar and grill after consuming between "five to six drinks" and admitted that he was drinking after the bar closed at 2 a.m.

The fatal accident occurred at approximately 3:48 a.m. Aug. 22, 2008.

McGuirk, in a 2008 Nissan Altima, was traveling westbound on Green Street when he entered the intersection of Route 1, failing to stop at two red lights. As a result, his motor vehicle 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, who was a 10-year veteran of the Perth Amboy Police Department. He was transported to Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital, New Brunswick, where he was pronounced dead at 4:42 a.m.

Police Officer Matthew Mercurio, 43, who was sitting in the front passenger seat, suffered from a lacerated spleen, a lacerated kidney, and multiple facial fractures. He was transported to Robert Wood where he was treated until Aug. 27.

Mercurio has since filed a civil lawsuit against McGuirk and Big Shots.

The two officers were transporting Gregory Efford, 38, 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 multiple fractures to his ribs and a contusion fracture to his vertebrae, authorities said.

Sewitch said in court that McGuirk's blood alcohol was likely 0.139 percent at the time of the accident. His blood alcohol that was tested after the accident came in at 0.107 percent. The legal limit is 0.08.

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

Marisol Raji, who is also a Perth Amboy police officer and was 12 weeks pregnant when her husband was killed, said she is hanging on.

She said she would have liked to see McGuirk sentenced to life in prison.

"He took my husband's life … it should have been life for a life," she said. "When he gets out of jail, he'll still be younger than my husband; he will still have the opportunity to live his life when we will never get Tommy back."

Perth Amboy Deputy Chief E.J. Mc- Donald said the department is satisfied with the plea agreement saying that the tragic accident is a "deep wound" that they are trying to heal.

"A trial would have become very painful for everyone," he said. "[The plea agreement] was a big benefit to us as a group."

Marisol said she is set to retire from the Perth Amboy police department effective July 1 to stay home and take care of her 3- month-old daughter, Mikayla, who she said is the spitting image of her father.

"Tommy would have wanted it that way," she said.

On June 18, the state Division of Alcoholic Beverage Control (ABC) reached a settlement with Entourage JPM LLC—Big Shots Bar & Grill regarding charges against the bar.

In September 2008, Woodbridge Township officials requested that the state ABC adopt jurisdiction over a civil lawsuit concerning the fatal accident. The officials cited several conflicts of interest, including family and friend relationships among the people involved, and asked the state ABC to look into any role the bar and grill may have had in the fatal accident.

The settlement includes a 275-day suspension; however, within the settlement, the bar will pay $175,000 in lieu of 100 days of suspension, and 130 days of suspension will be held in abeyance for a period of two years.

In May 2009, the state ABC charged the bar and grill for employing or having connections in a business capacity with Michael DeCrosta, a Woodbridge Township police officer at the time of the incident, whose employment was not approved by the director of the state ABC.

Decrosta had been a patrolman with the Woodbridge Police Department for 17 years and voluntarily resigned from the department on Sept. 3, 2008. According to township officials, DeCrosta, in his capacity as a Woodbridge Township police officer, would be prohibited from working within a liquor-license premise in the township.

The bar and grill was also charged with allowing non-employees on the licensed premises after the legal hour of sale where non-employees were consuming alcoholic beverages. Each charge had a penalty of a 100-day suspension.

John Hogan, of the Wilentz, Goldman, and Spitzer law firm, representing Big Shots, said they are pleased to have reached an agreement with the ABC and stressed that as a result of its investigation, the state ABC discovered two operational deficiencies in Big Shots' procedures that were unrelated to the fatal accident.