BY KIERAN CROWLEY
New York Post Staff Writer
February 22, 2011
The man crushed under an 8,000-pound police SUV on a Long Island beach last May doesn’t understand why he still can’t get his hands on the police report nine months later.
Marshall Starkman, who says it was “like a miracle” that he wasn’t killed, is about to undergo two more surgeries — on his damaged heart and on three broken vertebrae in his neck — but he says not seeing the report is even more upsetting.
Starkman’s lawyer, Neil Greenberg, said he had never experienced such a long delay in releasing an accident report.
“I believe that the Nassau County Police Department has had more than adequate time to complete the investigation and make their findings available,” Greenberg said.
Starkman, who manages a cellphone store, told The Post he was enjoying a day off last May 26 by sunning himself face-up on Long Beach, relaxing in a chaise longue with a cooler and a radio set to a sports station.
“The next thing I realized, I’m hit by this thing. It all happened so fast,” said a tearful Starkman, 44. “It was like the hand of God. I had no idea what happened.”
Witnesses immediately yelled to Long Beach Officer Paul DeMarco to stop — that he was running over a person — but DeMarco did not see Starkman or hear the shouts.
Nassau County Police, which handled the investigation, did not return calls requesting the report.
Starkman has filed a negligence lawsuit against the officer and the city of Long Beach.
