A Bayville man was convicted Thursday of depraved-indifference assault while driving high on drugs and causing a crash in December 2009 that left a Port Washington resident with a permanent traumatic brain injury.
Prosecutors said Peder Jakobson, 28, was on his way home from a Phish concert at Madison Square Garden on December 5 , 2009, when he crashed his Jeep Grand Cherokee into the back of Port Washington resident Joseph Petrone’s BMW sport utility vehicle. The incident occurred on Northern Boulevard in Old Brookville, near C.W. Post.
Petrone, a husband and father of three, suffered a traumatic brain injury, requiring immediate brain surgery to survive. He spent two weeks in a coma, and to this day, suffers memory and vision loss.
At the time of the crash, Jakobson had seven different drugs active in his blood, including cocaine, marijuana, ecstasy, n-benzylpiperazine, valium, ketamine, and methadone.
Police say they found marijuana, cocaine, and hypodermic needles in Jakobson’s jacket pockets after the crash, along with clean urine samples and an empty four-foot tall tank of nitrous oxide.
The Nassau County Police Crime Lab tested samples of marijuana, cocaine, and methadone, before the lab, , closed. Those samples were then re-tested by Philadelphia-based NMS Laboratories, confirming the accuracy of the County lab tests.
“The extent of planning the defendant engaged in to continue getting drugs and to remain impaired, and the amount of narcotics found in his system, is mind-boggling,” Nassau County District Attorney Rice stated. “What is truly shocking, however, is that he then got behind the wheel of his car. Peder Jakobson’s depraved choice has caused permanent harm to Mr. Petrone and his family.”
Judge Tammy Robbins convicted Jakobson of depraved indifference assault, assault, reckless endangerment, vehicular assault, two counts of driving while impaired by drugs, three counts of possession of a hypodermic needle, criminal possession of a controlled substance, unlawful possession of marijuana, and reckless driving.
Jakobson faces 25 years in prison at an August 8 sentencing. His attorney, Dennis Lemke, did not immediately return calls for comment.
