Indicted Sen. Bob Menendez’s Wife Struck and Killed a Man in 2018: Report

New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez‘s spouse, Nadine Menendez, reportedly hit and killed a pedestrian in 2018 and was allowed to depart the scene with out being taken into custody or examined for medicine and alcohol.

Each The Report and The New York Occasions cite a police report and sprint cam footage of the incident, which occurred when Nadine was relationship the senator (her final identify on the time was Arslanian). The retailers report that the incident occurred within the New Jersey borough of Bogota and that Nadine was declared “not at fault” as a result of the sufferer had been jaywalking.

The sprint cam footage exhibits Nadine in a costume and fur coat, talking to law enforcement officials in addition to an individual recognized as a retired cop from Hackensack, who got here to the scene to help her.

The sufferer is recognized by the retailers as 49-year-old Richard Koop.

An legal professional for the sufferer’s property advised The Report {that a} surveillance video from a enterprise on the road the place the incident occurred exhibits that Nadine “didn’t come to his support or to even test on him.”

The legal professional added {that a} settlement “for the utmost quantity,” was secured by the sufferer’s household.

Nadine and the senator had been indicted final month, following an investigation into their enterprise dealings with three males who’ve ties to Egypt’s authorities.

The 39-page indictment alleges that the senator, 69, and his spouse, 56, accepted lots of of 1000’s of {dollars} value of bribes in alternate for shielding the three businessmen — Wael Hana, Jose Uribe and Fred Daibes — and to “profit” the federal government of Egypt. A few of these bribes, prosecutors say, got here within the type of envelopes full of money.

“Over $480,000 in money — a lot of it stuffed into envelopes and hidden in clothes, closets, and a protected — was found within the residence, together with over $70,000 in Nadine Menendez’s protected deposit field,” the indictment alleges. Menendez, who was chair of the Senate International Relations Committee on the time of the indictment, has since advised reporters the money got here from his “private financial savings.”

Two of the businessmen talked about within the indictment — Hana and Uribe — play a job within the deadly automobile accident, as properly. The indictment alleges that the lads helped finance a 2019 Mercedez-Benz C-300 convertible value greater than $60,000 for Nadine within the wake of the 2018 incident, which left her automobile totaled. In alternate, prosecutors allege, the lads requested the senator to intrude in an unrelated state legal case involving Uribe.

In response to the Division of Justice Hana and Uribe “provided to assist purchase a brand new Mercedes-Benz C-300 convertible value greater than $60,000 for Menendez and Nadine Menendez. In alternate, Menendez agreed and sought to intrude within the [New Jersey Attorney General’s] legal insurance coverage fraud prosecution of an affiliate of Uribe and a associated investigation involving an worker of Uribe.”

On a number of events in 2019, Uribe, Hana, and Nadine briefed the senator on the investigation into Uribe’s associates, prosecutors allege. “Following these briefings, and in alternate for the promise of the luxurious convertible, Menendez contacted a senior state prosecutor …who supervised the prosecution and investigation not less than twice.” Throughout these communications, Menendez tried to strain the official to resolve the prosecution extra favorably for Uribe, although the official didn’t conform to intervene. 

In response to the indictment, in alternate for Menendez’s strain marketing campaign, Uribe offered Nadine with $15,000 money for the down cost on the luxurious convertible in April 2019. After the acquisition was full, Nadine messaged the senator, “Congratulations mon amour de la vie, we’re the proud house owners of a 2019 Mercedes.❤️” together with a photograph of the automobile.

Many lawmakers have known as on Menendez to resign within the wake of the indictment, although he has stated he has no plans to step down. He’s up for reelection in 2024.