Eric Boitel ripped into the former NYPD sergeant who killed his father as she learned she will spend up to 12 years behind bars.
Boitel, whose father Manuel was killed in January, told a Westchester County courtroom Wednesday that Tiffany Howell, 48, understood exactly what she had done. “She has seen firsthand the devastation that actions can leave behind,” he said. “She knows that one reckless decision can take someone’s life, tear a family apart and leave loved ones carrying pain for the rest of their lives.”
Howell received a sentence of 4 to 12 years after pleading guilty in August to aggravated vehicular homicide and second-degree manslaughter. The 18-year NYPD veteran addressed the court with a shaking voice as she begged for forgiveness. “I know that I made a terrible decision and I know that the consequences are irreversible,” she said. “I know I shouldn’t have consumed alcohol and taken the wheel and I’m so incredibly sorry that I did.”
Judge Anne B. Bianchi was unmoved by the display, calling Howell’s apology “superficial” and “self-serving.” “This is the Boitel family’s nightmare. This is not your nightmare,” Bianchi said. “This is a situation you created and that you could have completely avoided.”
Assistant Attorney General Allison Stuart had delivered equally harsh words at a bail hearing following Howell’s arrest. “She had no regard for his life, or of any other life for that matter, as she drove into oncoming traffic,” Stuart said at the time.
Howell’s blood alcohol level registered at least.18, more than double the legal limit, when she drove south in the northbound lanes of the Taconic State Parkway around midnight on Jan. 22. She slammed head-on into Manuel Boitel, 61, who was driving home to Peekskill after finishing his shift as a doorman at an Upper East Side apartment building. Photos from the scene showed both SUVs smashed nose to nose along the snow-covered parkway median. Howell had been drinking after leaving an NYPD religious association event.
Howell was suspended from the force and quit the NYPD within weeks of the wreck. Her attorney later characterized the incident as a “stark departure from the behavior and characteristics she’s displayed her entire life.”
Manuel Boitel, a married father of two, had long dreamed of becoming a police officer himself. “He was always the first to help others, often putting the needs of those around him before his own,” a fundraiser to assist his family stated, adding that his death “left a huge void in our family.” Howell had faced up to 25 years in prison before entering her August plea.