MONTICELLO – The State Attorney General’s Office of Special Investigation (OSI) has determined that criminal charges are not warranted against an off-duty Monticello police sergeant whose vehicle struck and fatally injured a pedestrian last November.
Steven Christy, 72, was struck about 6 p.m. Nov. 25, 2025, while crossing Pleasant Street in Monticello outside a marked crosswalk. He was taken to a hospital and later transferred to a larger hospital, where he died Nov. 30.
The OSI said its investigation found no evidence that the sergeant was speeding, distracted, using his cellphone, impaired by drugs or alcohol or otherwise driving dangerously.
Under New York law, criminally negligent homicide requires proof beyond a reasonable doubt that a person failed to perceive a substantial and unjustifiable risk of death and that the failure represented a gross deviation from reasonable conduct. James said the evidence did not meet that standard.
The investigation did, however, criticize the handling of the crash by the Monticello Police Department and Sullivan County Sheriff’s Office.
The sergeant was driving an unregistered and uninspected vehicle without a front license plate, according to the report. The OSI said neither agency thoroughly inspected the vehicle, examined its event data recorder or sought assistance from an outside collision-reconstruction agency. The sergeant was allowed to leave the scene in the vehicle and was not ticketed until after authorities learned Christy was critically injured.
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