Not Guilty in Road-Rage Confrontation

A trial in East Hampton Town Justice Court on July 12 resulted in a not-guilty verdict for Nicholas Sebastian Spoerl, a carpenter who lives in Sag Harbor. Mr. Spoerl had been accused of reckless driving and endangerment.

What police later called a road-rage confrontation ended on Route 114 in East Hampton on the morning of April 16, 2014, when Mr. Spoerl’s 2002 Subaru Forester collided head-on with a 2008 Chevrolet utility truck owned by Blue Tides Irrigation of Southampton and driven by Steven S. Setek of Wading River. Thomas J. McCabe of Montauk, 79, a retired Southampton Town police officer, alleged that preceding the crash Mr. Spoerl’s car had struck his repeatedly, on purpose. Mr. Spoerl claimed the reverse was true.

Mr. Spoerl, Mr. Setek, Mr. McCabe, and Lisa Weitz, the officer who arrested Mr. Spoerl several weeks after the crash, all testified at the trial. Mr. Setek, the first on the stand, told Justice Lisa R. Rana he was headed south, approaching Hardscrabble Road, with a line of vehicles coming toward him. They were bunched tight together, “like Nascar,” he said. He heard “an extremely large pop, ear-deafening,” and then saw Mr. Spoerl’s Subaru headed right at him.

“I looked at the gentleman, and he looked at me. The collision took place. The airbag went off, I watched it go down in slow motion. I smelled gas. I couldn’t get out. I slid under my seat belt. They said I walked around two or three times and I collapsed. I couldn’t feel anything, my body was totally numb. I didn’t know what was going on. I thought I had passed away.”

Mr. Setek said he had had anxiety issues before the accident, which have since worsened. He has also developed emphysema, he said, and is now on medication to ease his anxiety.

Mr. McCabe testified next. He was headed south on Stephen Hand’s Path toward Route 114, he told the court, when Mr. Spoerl suddenly pulled out of a driveway, cutting off his 2008 Ford Explorer. The Forester and the Explorer both turned right on 114, where, said Mr. McCabe, Mr. Spoerl tapped his brakes, then jammed them on. Mr. McCabe said he pulled onto the shoulder. “My idea was to get away from him. I didn’t know what this guy was up to. He could have had a gun, he could have had a knife, I was 79 years old. I’m not looking for any physical confrontations.”

He testified that Mr. Spoerl began slamming his Subaru sideways into his Explorer before vanishing all of a sudden. Mr. McCabe said he saw nothing in his rear mirror and heard no sound.

He resumed driving, then stopped. Worried, he told the court, that Mr. Spoerl might be lying on the side of the road, he doubled back and came upon the crash.

Justice Rana asked him whether he had heard the noise of it, but he answered no.

Lisa Weitz, who later arrested Mr. Spoerl, testified that the decision to charge him was “collaborative,” among herself, her commanding officers, and the district attorney’s office. She said Mr. McCabe had tried to reach her several times, until she was directed to contact him.

Mr. McCabe had told the court he had made those calls to clear up what he called “discrepancies” in the accident reports. After she called him, “I went in and discussed it with her that day, the accident report and all the discrepancies that were in it.”

Brian DeSesa, who represented the defendant, showed Ms. Weitz a report he had found in the police files, identifying Mr. McCabe as a former police officer. She said she had not seen the document before.

Mr. Spoerl testified last. He said he had turned onto Stephen Hand’s Path not from a driveway, but from Long Lane, at an intersection with poor visibility. He inadvertently cut off Mr. McCabe, he acknowledged. From there to Route 114, he said, Mr. McCabe tailgated him, until he, McCabe, pulled onto the shoulder and began slamming his Ford into Mr. Spoerl’s Subaru. That forced him into the oncoming lane of traffic, Mr. Spoerl said, leading to the crash with Mr. Setek’s truck.

During summation, Edward Burke Jr., also representing Mr. Spoerl and pointing at his client, seated at the defense table, said, “The wrong man is in this chair.”

“It is unfortunate that something like this would occur in this town,” Justice Rana said afterward. “The court was not convinced beyond a reasonable doubt that Mr. Spoerl was guilty of the charges against him.”