Street Safety

Driver Who Killed Cyclist Jake McDonaugh Pleads Not Guilty to Homicide

Michael Oxley, the driver who killed 18-year-old cyclist Jake McDonaugh on Flatbush Avenue in April, pled not guilty to five charges -- including criminally negligent homicide -- at his arraignment in Brooklyn Criminal Court yesterday. He is currently out on bail, which the judge set at $75,000. The next court date is set for July 15.

By Noah Kazis

4:02 PM EDT on May 14, 2010

Image: NY1

Michael Oxley, the driver who killed 18-year-old cyclist Jake McDonaugh on Flatbush Avenue in April, pled not guilty to five charges — including criminally negligent homicide — at his arraignment in Brooklyn Criminal Court yesterday. He is currently out on bail, which the judge set at $75,000. The next court date is set for July 15.

The decision by the office of Brooklyn DA Charles Hynes to bring such a serious charge against Oxley is rare. New York prosecutors seldom bring criminally negligent homicide charges in traffic fatality cases unless the motorist was driving drunk or left the scene. Witnesses state that Oxley was speeding and running a red light when he hit McDonaugh. Oxley was also driving with a suspended license.

Noah Kazis

Noah joined Streetsblog as a New York City reporter at the start of 2010. When he was a kid, he collected subway paraphernalia in a Vignelli-map shoebox. Before coming to Streetsblog, he blogged at TheCityFix DC and worked as a field organizer for the Obama campaign in Toledo, Ohio. Noah graduated from Yale University, where he wrote his senior thesis on the class politics of transportation reform in New York City. He lives in Morningside Heights.

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