Community Corner
Kyle Soukup Pleads Not Guilty to Felony DWI, Resisting Arrest
Jailed in lieu of $50,000 cash bail or $100,000 bond.
Kyle Soukup — a 27-year-old from Nassau County who served time for assault and manslaughter after killing an engaged couple in 2002 during a drag racing accident in Muttontown — pleaded not guilty Friday to an array of charges that stemmed from a drunk driving arrest in Southampton Village on July 6.
At Suffolk County Criminal Court in Riverside, Justice William Condon set bail at $50,000 cash or $100,000 bond and Soukup was jailed at the Suffolk County Correctional Facility.
Soukup was stopped in a black 2012 Ford Edge by a village police officer around 4 a.m. after speeding on White Street and running a stop sign, according to court documents. He could not produce a valid driver's license, failed a field sobriety test and refused to submit to chemical tests, documents state.
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A grand jury indicted Soukup on a charge of driving while intoxicated that was elevated to the "E" felony level because of a DWI conviction within the past 10 years. The 10-count indictment also includes aggravated unlicenced operation of a motor vehicle in the first degree, a felony, and resisting arrest and circumventing an interlock device, both misdemeanors, as well as multiple traffic infractions.
The indictment states that Soukup was driving with a revoked license and without a court-ordered ignition interlock device, which prevents a vehicle from starting if the operator has alcohol on his breath. It also states that he refused to submit to a chemical test for determining his blood alcohol content.
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Robert Clifford, the spokesman for the Suffolk district attorney, 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.
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.
Soukup is due back in court Aug. 9.
