New York Firefighter Recalls Rescue Of Officer
Newsday 6/2/09
New York City firefighter Philip Scarfi veered into the breakdown lane of the Long Island Expressway in Plainview when he saw the cloud of debris left by a crash, grabbed his first-aid kit and bolted across eight lanes of traffic to the side of the crushed police car, he testified Monday in a Mineola courtroom.
Inside, he saw the crumpled body of Nassau police Officer Kenneth Baribault, who had stopped to question a suspected drunken driver early May 18, 2008, when a Mercedes-Benz hit his car from behind.
"Emergency! Emergency! Officer down!" Scarfi said he shouted into Baribault's radio.
"His lips were blue. His pupils were unequal," Scarfi said Monday, testifying on the first day of the trial of Rahiem Griffin, who is accused of hitting Baribault's car while speeding and driving drunk and with a suspended license.
Griffin, 28, of Shirley, is charged with second-degree assault, which carries a maximum sentence of 7 years in prison, and other charges. His lawyer said Monday that Griffin accepts some responsibility for what happened, but that prosecutors have charged him with a crime more serious than the one he committed.
Scarfi, 47, of Deer Park, who retired from the FDNY in March after more than 20 years, testified that he pulled Baribault from his patrol car in the eastbound breakdown lane. He then began rescue breathing to force air into the 30-year-old officer's lungs, he said.
As Scarfi testified, Baribault's younger sister, Danielle Rella, 24, of Fort Salonga, blinked back tears. A year after the crash, Baribault is still paralyzed on the right side of his body and is able to speak only in single syllables, Rella has said.
In the hallway after Scarfi left the stand, Baribault's mother, Patricia Baribault of Nesconset, embraced him.
"There are a lot of good people in the world. Thank God for them," Patricia Baribault said as she left the courthouse. "My son is alive today because they took the time to care."
In her opening statement, prosecutor Melissa Lewis said Griffin had been drinking all night and had even taken a drink with him on the road.
"What he did was beyond reckless," said Nassau District Attorney Kathleen Rice, who sat in the courtroom for some of the morning's testimony. "He shouldn't even have been on the road, never mind after drinking."
Griffin's lawyer, Gerard Brogdon of Jamaica, said in his opening argument before Judge Jerald Carter that his client was indeed speeding and drinking, but he said his behavior was not "reckless," which is what prosecutors must prove to convict him of second-degree assault. Brogdon said an additional factor in the crash was the fact that Griffin's front left tire had just been replaced and was faulty.
"We know Mr. Griffin did some things wrong that night. He didn't do everything wrong," Brogdon said.
McClatchy-Tribune News Service
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