Retired Manhattan Supreme Court Special Referee Marilyn Dershowitz - the sister-in-law of legal giant Alan Dershowitz - was struck and killed by a postal service truck as she rode her bike in Chelsea Saturday afternoon, police said.
Marilyn Dershowitz, 68, was hit on W. 29th St. near Ninth Ave. just after 12 p.m., sending her crashing to the pavement, police said.
Bleeding badly from the head, she was rushed to Bellevue Medical Center, where she died a short later.
Her husband Nathan, a criminal defense lawyer, was riding just ahead of his wife - and learned of the tragedy when he looked back moments later.
"She stopped at a light and I went on ahead," said Nathan Dershowitz. "A block later I stopped and turned around, and I saw the lights from the police cars."
Investigators believe she was pedaling a silver mountain bike west with the traffic on 29th St. when she was struck by a mid-sized postal vehicle, police said.
"The cars behind me said two cars tried to make it through the light," said Nathan Dershowitz, "and neither wanted to give, and she was caught between a car and a truck."
The truck drove off, but investigators do not believe its driver was aware he struck Dershowitz, police said. Investigators found the postal worker a short time later and were interviewing him late afternoon Saturday.
The incident was also caught on surveillance video, police said.
The couple, who have two grown children, were pedaling to the West Side bike path in the moments before the tragedy, a grieving Nathan Dershowitz said.
"We're rarely in the city on weekends, and we had all kinds of nice things planned," he said bitterly. "I bought tickets for a boat ride up the Hudson to see the 4th of July fireworks."
Marilyn Dershowitz, who lived in Tudor City, recently retired after working for years as a Special Referee in the Civil Branch of the New York State Supreme Court, her husband said.
She oversaw several high-profile divorce trials, including the 2006 case of Dr. Nicholas Bartha, who blew up his upper East Side townhouse rather than turn it over to his wife.
Her brother-in-law, Alan Dershowitz, is the Harvard law professor who doubles as one of the most famed legal analysts in the country.
The accident took place just a few blocks from the a major US Postal Service sorting facility. It was not immediately known if Marilyn Dershowitz was wearing a helmet.
Sister-In-Law Of Famous Attorney Alan Dershowitz Killed By Mail Truck In NYC: MyFoxNY.com
A hit and run mail truck? Dershowitz is going to sue the daylights out of the USPS. Now if this were his mother-in-law instead, he would give the USPS a medal of honor. I'm just sayin'.
ReplyDeleteI know one thing - these new bike paths are NOT making the city one bit safer but in fact, more dangerous. Bike riders are now going a LOT faster because they're no longer worried about parked cars opening doors on them.
ReplyDeleteB'D'E. money will not bring her back! the persone is gone.!!!
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