The Latest: Prosecutor to appeal ruling in fatal limo crash

CENTRAL ISLIP, N.Y. – The Latest on the case against a limousine driver in a fatal crash(all times local):

2:50 p.m.

A New York prosecutor says he will appeal a judge’s ruling that tossed out criminal charges against a limousine driver whose four passengers were killed in a 2015 crash on Long Island.

Suffolk County District Attorney Thomas Spota (SPOH’-tuh) says he’s disappointed a judge found an indictment against the driver was flawed because of improper grand jury testimony.

Limo driver Carlos Pino had been awaiting trial on criminally negligent homicide and other charges.

Authorities said the limousine driver had just left a vineyard and was trying to make a U-turn at an intersection when a pickup truck broadsided the limo.

Spota says Wednesday that Pino should’ve known he couldn’t have made a safe turn.

The pickup truck driver pleaded not guilty to drunken driving offences.

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11:30 a.m.

A judge has dropped criminal charges against a limousine driver in a fatal crash in Long Island wine country.

Four women died and four others were injured in the July 2015 crash.

Supreme Court Justice Fernando Camacho ruled Wednesday that an indictment charging driver Carlos Pino was flawed because of improper grand jury testimony.

Prosecutors contended the grand jury testimony was proper, but the judge disagreed.

Pino had been awaiting trial on criminally negligent homicide and other charges. Authorities say the limousine driver was trying to make a U-turn at an intersection after leaving a nearby winery when a pickup truck broadsided the limo.

The pickup driver was arrested on drunken driving charges, but prosecutors later determined he was not criminally responsible for the fatal crash.