Community Corner
DWI Arraignment Friday for Man Who Did Time for Drag Racing Deaths
Southampton Village police say Kyle Soukup was driving drunk July 6.
A man who Southampton Village police charged with driving while intoxicated on Friday was not only already on probation for DWI — but he was also previously convicted of assault and manslaughter after killing a couple in Muttontown in 2002 while drag racing.
Kyle Soukup, 27, of East Hills in Nassau County, was indicted by a Suffolk County grand jury on Wednesday, according to Robert Clifford, the spokesman for the Suffolk district attorney. Judge Barbara Kahn will unseal the indictment Friday at Suffolk County Criminal Court in Riverside.
Soukup was stopped in a black 2012 Ford Edge by a village police officer around 4 a.m. Friday after speeding on White Street and running a stop sign, according to court documents.
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He could not produce a valid driver's license, failed a field sobriety test and refused to submit to chemical tests, documents state.
Clifford said the most recent suspension of Soukup's license, according to DMV records, was April 28, 2011, when he pleaded guilty to misdemeanor DWI in New York County Criminal Court. He was sentenced to three years of probation with alcohol treatment conditions and fined $750.
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According to a 2002 New York Times article, Soukup, 17 at the time, was driving a Corvette while the friend he was racing was in a Mercedes. They were headed north on Route 106 in Muttontown when they struck a Jeep and killed 31-year-old Jean Desir and 23-year-old Sophia Bretous, who were to be married in two months, The Times reported.
