Israeli family furious over 'wrist-slap' sentence in hedge-funder's hit-and-run

Their loved-one's hit-and-run killer got only 60 days jail -- and they had to hear about it from The Post.

The Israel-based family of tragic young hedge-fund exec Ronen Katz was furious yesterday to learn that Manhattan prosecutors agreed to a wrist-slap sentence for killer driver Naisha Sutton, then never told them.

"We would never have agreed to that," Katz's heartbroken sister, Tamar -- a three-time Israeli national figure skating champion -- said by phone from her family's home in northern Israel.

"Nobody told us," said Katz's anguished mom, Leora, who said she was livid that the family couldn't be present at Tuesday's Manhattan Supreme Court sentencing. "We weren't updated. I find out about the 60 days from The Post. Sixty days for a life? The life of a young person? She [Sutton] will not understand what she did with only 60 days. That's nothing. That is not punishment."

Sutton was in violation of her learner's permit when she set out without a licensed driver in her car on the day of the September, 2010 crash. The 26-year-old mom admitted she'd accidentally driven the wrong way down a one-way road after making an illegal left turn from the West Side Highway onto Canal Street moments before striking Katz, 27, as he rode northbound on West Street on his new red Ducati motorcycle.

Sutton got out of her car, asked bystanders to call 911, but left the scene before cops arrived and as Katz lay in the street dying. She turned herself in at a precinct near her Brooklyn apartment three hours later, explaining that her 22-month-old toddler was screaming in the back seat and that she'd "panicked."

Sutton, who will serve three years probation upon her release, was allowed to plead guilty only to misdemeanor leaving the scene of an accident.

Felony homicide charges can be hard to uphold in cases like Sutton's, in which an accident was not the result of outright criminal behavior such as drinking or speeding. Israel would have done a better job, said Katz's angry father, Yirmi. "She would have gone to jail for two or three years in Israel," the father said. "It's a kind of homicide…Israel is a different country," he said. "Much different."

Prosecutors declined to comment on Sutton's plea or sentence.