A Florida woman who claimed to be Harry Potter allegedly fatally ran over a visiting New York federal judge and injured a 6-year-old boy, police said.
The accident happened Friday morning in Boca Raton, Florida. According to multiple reports, District Judge Sandra Feuerstein was walking down a sidewalk when a car driven by the suspect, Nastasia Andranie Snape, struck her.
Snape then drove back onto the road and struck the boy in a crosswalk, police added.
The boy, Anthony Ovchinnikov, was taken to the hospital, but his health condition could not be determined on Sunday.
Authorities note that Snape then fled to Delray Beach, where he crashed.
A Delray Police officer said that Snape appeared to be having seizures, but was able to get out of the car and then she looked into space and just said she was fine.
Authorities say that in the ambulance, Snape started yelling and fighting with the doctors while yelling that she was Harry Potter. Police said they found a synthetic drug commonly known as “bath salts” in her bag, which can cause psychotic episodes.
The driver fled the scene, despite the fact that the minor was lying on the floor.
Snape, 23, was charged with vehicular manslaughter and leaving the scene of a fatal accident.
She remained incarcerated Sunday on a $ 60,000 bond. The Palm Beach County Public Defender’s Office was not open Sunday and has a policy of not speaking about their cases.
Coincidentally, the young woman’s last name has a special reference for fans of the Harry Potter books. Severus Snape, one of the main characters in the saga, is the professor hated by the young wizard but who ends up being a fundamental help in the fight against Lord Voldemort.
Horacio Escalante’s vehicle, a Ford F-150 pickup truck, caught fire on one of the major highways in the Atlanta metropolitan area after being rear-ended by another car.
Who was Federal Judge Feuerstein?
Feuerstein had served as a federal judge in the Eastern District of New York since 2003. She worked in federal court in Central Islip on Long Island.
In a statement, Eugene Corcoran, executive of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York, said that Feuerstein “was a valued member of our Eastern District Bank. His eccentric style and warm personality lit up the courtroom. Both her colleagues and the litigants will miss her. “
Feuerstein was born in New York in 1946 and worked as a school teacher before earning a law degree from Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law in 1979, according to her biography on the Eastern District website.
“She saw the role of a judge as interpreting and not creating laws”, dijo a Newsday Joshua Glick, who was Feuerstein’s secretary in 2007 and 2007. “She focused on writing clear and concise opinions that were easy to understand. Every now and then she was tough on the litigants that she felt they weren’t being completely honest with her, but she was always fair. “
Feuerstein was appointed to federal court by President George W. Bush after 16 years as a New York State judge, according to the Eastern District website. The court’s jurisdiction covers Long Island, including Brooklyn and Queens, along with Staten Island.
She had been presiding over the case of a former New York City Police officer, Valerie Cincinelli, who is accused of paying her lover to kill her husband. The lover went to the authorities and was arrested. Cincinelli was expected to plead guilty this week, according to media reports. It is unclear how Feuerstein’s death will affect the case. His late mother, Annette Elstein, was also a judge and they were believed to be the first mother-daughter duo to be judges.
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