NEW YORK -  a New York City police officer WAS INDICTED in connection with a motor vehicle incident that left an elderly man seriously injured.

The defendant is Police Sergeant Joseph Spiekerman, 43. He joined the New York City Police Department in 1994 and is currently suspended from his regular duties at the Housing Bureau Public Service Area 4 in the Bronx. He was indicted on felony charges of assault and vehicular assault.

The investigation leading to today’s indictment revealed that Spiekerman, who worked the 4 p.m. to midnight shift on June 28, 2009, went to a bar at York Avenue and 85th Street in Manhattan after work. He drank at the bar until approximately 6:30 a.m. when he left, got into his car, and began to drive uptown on York Avenue. He accelerated in an attempt to beat the light at 86th Street, but the light turned red well before he entered the intersection. Spiekerman struck a 68-year-old man who was crossing York Avenue at the time. The defendant did not brake or make any significant attempt to avoid the victim, who was struck head-on and on the left side of his body.

The victim was taken to New York Hospital with numerous injuries to his legs, ribs, neck, spleen and head.  He is currently still in a rehabilitation hospital, confined to a wheelchair, with minimal ability to walk with a walker.

Spiekerman did stop his car immediately following the accident, stayed at the scene and made attempts to assist the victim. He admitted to responding police officers that he had been drinking. However, he gave false statements about where he had been drinking and where he worked. He also refused to take a breathalyzer test at the scene.

Spiekerman was indicted on one count of assault in the second degree, a class D felony, which is punishable by up to 2⅓ to 7 years in state prison; and two counts of vehicular assault in the second degree, a class E felony, which is punishable by up to 1⅓ to 4 years in state prison. He is scheduled to be arraigned today in State Supreme Court, Part 1.