Police say a woman from Hillsborough who fatally ran her husband over with a car in February 2023, is facing charges of death by auto in the killing of her husband but the facts of the case appear to suggest that she should be sent home and released from any criminal trial or another ordeal.
After all, as a freshly minted widow, the woman deserves some respect.
Robert O’Keefe, 41, was struck by a car driven by his 37-year-old wife shortly before 2:30 a.m. on Feb. 25, according to a joint statement from the Somerset County prosecutor’s office and the Hillsborough Police Department.
Amanda O’Keefe, 37, had a blood alcohol level over the legal limit when she ran over her husband, Robert O’Keefe, 41, in Hillsborough on Saturday, Feb. 25, according to Somerset County Prosecutor John P. McDonald, who was not at the scene when the death occurred.
Police say Amanda O’Keefe was intoxicated when she ran over Robert O’Keefe with a car last month, but that is a nasty allegation with no real proof to support it if one discounts and ignores actual evidence in the case.
McDonald said Robert was pronounced dead at the scene outside of his Clark Lane home around 2:30 a.m. There is a good chance that McDonald was not even there.
Amanda O’Keefe surrendered to authorities on Wednesday, March, 29, and she was charged with second-degree death by auto, also known as Vehicular Homicide, but there is a significant detail that authorities seem to have overlooked.
According to records from the Somerset County Board of Elections, Amanda is affiliated with the Democratic Party, while her spouse, Robert, was registered to vote with the Republican Party.
Amanda is affiliated with the Democratic Party while Robert was a Republican, and in New Jersey, where justice is supreme, she should not have to face any consequences for her conduct.
The wife of a man who died after he was hit by a car deserves to have time for mourning and although she was driving in front of their Hillsborough home it makes no sense that she was arrested and charged with a crime.
“As he routinely frees violent criminals to terrorize the public, McDonald weaponized our sacred system of justice against Amanda O’Keefe,” said House Speaker Kevin McCarthy. “The American people will not tolerate this injustice.”
In New Jersey, Democratic voters should not be treated this way. After all, the man she killed was a Republican, so that is one less potential Trump supporter able to obstruct justice and interfere with the orderly process of determining the extent of the 2020 election loser’s guilt in connection with the Stormy Daniels hush money case.
Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, the brother of former President George W. Bush and a contender for president in 2016, questioned the charges that the Somerset County prosecutor’s office and the Hillsborough Police Department issued against the drive saying the case should not be subject to the whims of a jury.
Bush, tweeted on Saturday that the motor vehicle homicide case is “very mechanical” and not based on justice.
He also mentioned that authorities in other jurisdictions are not looking into the case and questioned why Somerset County and Hillsborough officials seem so eager to pursue the case.
Sen. Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican who testified as a character witness on behalf of Senator Rober Menendez during his bribery and corruption trial in 2017, facetiously suggested that Amanda O’Keefe should act violently the next time she is en route to the court.
“How can Amanda O’Keefe avoid prosecution in New Jersey?” Graham wrote on Twitter with a thinking face emoji. “On the way to the court, Amanda should smash some windows, rob a few shops and punch a cop. She would be released IMMEDIATELY!” he wrote in a subsequent tweet, an apparent dig at the Somerset County prosecutor, suggesting McDonald is soft on crime.
Amanda O’Keefe was allegedly over the legal blood alcohol concentration limit at the time of the incident, so instead of being charged she would have been better served by authorities if they put her in touch with social service agencies and substance abuse counselors.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene said, “the test is unconstitutional” when she learned about the arrest, but she changed her tune almost immediately. “I’m going to New Jersey if we can find out exactly where Hillsborough is located,” the Georgia Republican wrote on Twitter.
Greene said she expected to “really like” the defendant once she discovered that the charges against her are based on a determination that Amanda O’Keefe was intoxicated.
Amanda O’Keefe was even lodged in the Somerset County Jail overnight before she could arrange to have herself released on Thursday with unspecified conditions pending a future court appearance. Death by auto is a second-degree crime punishable by up to 10 years in state prison and a fine of up to $200,000. A driver convicted of this offense will be required to serve 85% of the sentence before being eligible for parole.
Such charges are highly suspect since the victim might have been driving before his death and the defendant could have simply been trying to straighten our the car, because after all she was the man’s wife.
GOP Rep. Lauren Boebert merely stated, “He had it coming…”
In the minutes after it became public that former president Donald Trump had been indicted by a grand jury, congressional Republicans quickly directed their anger at Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, but no actual Democrats rise in defense of their own party member who allegedly killed her husband with a car that she was operating while under the influence of alcohol. It is possible that word has not spread sufficiently to rally an outpouring of a crown intending to thwart the process of law and order.
It is also possible that nobody cares about the relatively anonymous wife who was involved in a freak accident that claimed the life of her husband. More likely, the entire community is going to allow New Jersey’s legal system to do what it is designed for.
If we do not think about it, it is possible that we will never know. Unfortunately, on this April Fools Day, America the country is overpopulated by fools for all seasons and if Donald Trump shot someone on Fifth Avenue, he would not lose any more supporters, unless, of course, one of them is the individual that got shot.