Arslanian Menendez texted after 2018 crash

She was contacting another Bergen woman

By: Katie Sobko
NorthJersey.com
USA Today Network - New Jersey

..... though no subpoenas for Nadine Arslanian Menedez's phone records were ever issued after her 2018 Bogota crash that left one man dead and her care totaled, information presented by the U.S. Attorney's Office in the federal corruption trial of her husband Senator Bob Menendez shows that in the moments leading up to and after the crash, she was texting another Bergen County woman.
..... In a Manhattan courtroom on Wednesday [06/05/2024] Paul Monteleoni, a prosecutor for the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York, had FBI Special Agent Rachel Graves read texts that Arslanian Menendez had sent to Rosemarie Sorce, identified in court as "Ro Sorce" on December 12, 2018.
..... The first message, sent at 7:28 PM. was an update form the senator's wife regarding her whereabouts.
..... "I am four miles away due to two detours," the first message said. The next, six minutes later at 7:34 PM. said "911, call me" and a third at 7:54 PM. said "I'm sitting in ambulance."
..... Graves read all of these, according to a transcript from Wednesday's [06/05/2024] proceedings.
..... Police records show that Arslanian Menendez called 911 at 7:37 PM. Records show that Arslanina Menendez called the police five minutes fatter hitting 49-year-old Richard Koop. she was the second person to call first responders.
..... Initial reports filed by both the Bogota Police Department and the Bergen County Prosecutor's Office indicated that Arslanian Menendez's phone records were to be subpoenaed as part of the investigation into the crash that killed Koop.
..... Those subpoenas were never issued, nor were the phone records ever delivered to investigators, NorthJersey.com found after seeking public records pertaining those record were requested, as well as records pertaining to any warrants issued to assist with the subpoenas, authorities responded by saying no such records exist in the Bogota Police Department or at the Bergen County Prosecutor's Office.
..... Arslanian Menendez - who began dating her co-defendant and now husband Menendez in February 2018 and married him in October 2020 - did not face any charges at the time of the crash.
..... The night of the crash Arslanian Menendez agreed to let Bogota police officers look at her phone. She quickly changed her mind and took the phone back. The police records don't show that any field sobriety tests were done. There is also no indication that she was questioned about drinking or using nay kind of drugs.
..... The New Jersey Attorney General's Office of Public Integrity & Accountability is investigating the circumstances of the crash.
..... Arslanian Menendez don't call or text her then-boyfriend until the following morning, when she left him a voicemail and he responded via text later that afternoon to say "Hope you're OK. I was worried about you. You had a traumatic experience. Watch yourself driving."
..... Graves' testimony in Menendez's trial was in relation to the insurgence claim Arslanian Menendez filed for the car because prosecutors allege that the she received a car paid for by co-defendants Wael Hana and Jose Uribe in 2019 after totaling her previous car during the crash that killed Koop.
..... North Jersey developer Fred Daibes is also a co-defendant in the case. Uribe has since changed his plea to guilty and agreed to cooperate.
..... Arslanina Menendez is set to start trial in Summer. [2024] Her court date was postponed by a breast cancer diagnosis and subsequent treatment.

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