Menendez’s wife hit and killed man with her car in 2018

October 04, 2023 11:54 PM

Nadine Menendez, the wife of embattled Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ), was reportedly responsible for a fatal crash in Bogota, New Jersey, in 2018, according to multiple reports.

Nadine Menendez, who was the fiancee of the senator at the time and has a history of traffic-related incidents, was driving in New Jersey when she crashed into a man, Richard Koop, who died almost instantly. She was found “not at fault” because the man was jaywalking, and she was not tested for drugs or alcohol at the time. She was ultimately allowed to leave the scene after providing a statement.

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Menendez Bribery — Democratic U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez of New Jersey and his wife Nadine Menendez arrive to the federal courthouse in New York, Wednesday, Sept. 27, 2023. Menendez is due in court to answer to federal charges alleging he used his powerful post to secretly advance Egyptian interests and carry out favors for local businessmen in exchange for bribes of cash and gold bars. (AP Photo/Jeenah Moon)

Bob Menendez was indicted alongside his wife late last month for allegedly accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes in exchange for using his position to benefit the Egyptian government. He described the 2018 crash on Wednesday as a “tragic accident, and obviously we think of the family.” But Koop’s family claimed they had not heard from the senator and his wife after the crash.

“The family really has had serious concerns over what we felt was a very sparse, one-sided investigation,” Koop’s sister, Rosemarie Koop-Angelicola, told the New York Times. “Definitely a lack of legal enthusiasm to take this case, definite lack of media coverage, and a lack of communication by the authorities of Bergen County. We felt that the whole thing was very silently swept under the rug.”

It is not clear whether the police officers responding to the crash knew who Nadine Menendez was at the time.

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The incident was cited in Bob Menendez’s recent indictment but was described as an incident that left Nadine without a car. Both have been indicted on federal bribery charges, with the senator allegedly using his political position to aid the government of Egypt and three New Jersey businessmen. They have pleaded “not guilty,” and a trial has been set for May 6, 2024.

The crash was not the first time that Nadine Menendez had been in trouble for traffic-related incidents. She reportedly had several penalties that cost her $410 total between 2007 and 2021, including using a mobile phone while driving, ignoring traffic signals, and unsafe passing, according to public court records.