Maureen Lambert
A Stony Brook woman pleaded not guilty at Suffolk County court in Riverhead on Thursday to a grand jury indictment that accused her in the fatal hit and run of an 11-year-old girl in Smithtown last month.
Maureen Lambert, 21, was charged with leaving the scene of an accident aggravated unlicensed driving. She had surrendered to police more than a day after the crash that killed Courtney Sipes as she crossed Main Street at the corner of Lawrence Avenue on Nov. 24.
Lambert purchased heroin the day of the accident and that the crime lab is conducting tests on her blood, Suffolk prosecutors said.
“We will conduct a collision reconstruction and continue to pursue leads to further develop information as to the defendant’s whereabouts before and after the hit and run,” Suffolk County District Attorney Thomas Spota said in a statement.
Judge Stephen Braslow set cash bail at $200,000 or $300,000 bond.
Aggravated unlicensed driving in the third degree is punishable by 30 days in jail. Leaving the scene of an accident with personal injury is punishable by a maximum two and one-third to seven years in prison.
