Cocaine / Crack, Drugs, DUI / DWI

Lawyer Accused Of Mowing Down 5 People While Driving Drunk, Crack Pipes Allegedly Found In Car

The attorney in question had two licenses suspended: her driver's license AND her law license.

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On Wednesday night, while Above the Law editors and readers were out having fun at our annual holiday party in New York City, a horrific crime scene was unfolding nearby in Herald Square.

According to several news reports, shortly before 10 p.m., a woman who has since been accused of driving drunk allegedly hit two cars before she careened into a crowd of people and through the storefront window of Forever 21 in a failed attempt to flee the scene of an accident.

As it turns out, the driver of the vehicle was an attorney.

Stella Mednik, a 2002 graduate of Brooklyn Law School who worked as a contract attorney at Cleary Gottlieb for a time, stands accused of hitting 5 people before she crashed her car into the fashion retailer famous for selling designer knockoffs. Everyone who was struck by Mednik’s car sustained severe injuries.

CBS New York has an account of what reportedly happened:

Police said the chaos began when Mednik, who was driving a Ford Mustang, rear-ended another vehicle on 34th Street. She then backed up and tried to go around that car to keep going east in westbound traffic….

She hit another car, according to police. She then swerved back into the eastbound lanes, and at that point, witnesses saw her car go over the curb and plow into pedestrians….

Witnesses said the driver was clearly intoxicated.

STEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEELLLLLLLLLLLLAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!

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Police say Mednik refused to take a breathalyzer test, but a blood test conducted later that evening revealed that her blood-alcohol level was .185, which falls into the enhanced penalty range for drunk driving in New York.

Mednik’s license to practice law was suspended in 2011 due to the mismanagement of her attorney escrow account. At the time, she attributed her behavior to her health, claiming that she was “emotionally distraught” and “unstable” — she apparently had a slew of mental health issues. Mednik’s license to practice was to be reinstated after two years. Here’s the final order and opinion from her disciplinary proceedings.

Mednik’s law license wasn’t the only thing of hers that was suspended: police say her driver’s license was suspended, too. At the time of the accident, she was driving a rental car. Per the New York Daily News, police allegedly found a crack pipe in Mednik’s purse, as well as one on the floor of the car.

Coincidentally, in her own attorney bio, Mednik says she “lead [sic] trials in areas of DWI … and possession of illegal substance cases.” Perhaps she’ll be able to represent herself, because she’s been charged with aggravated unlicensed operation of a vehicle, criminal possession of a controlled substance, DWI, leaving the scene of an accident, refusing a breath test, and unauthorized use of a vehicle.

According to the New York Post, one of Mednik’s former colleagues caught wind of the charges, and sent her these kind-hearted wishes:

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Mednik “is a kook,” said one former colleague who asked not to be named. “A kid who wanted to act like a hot-shot lawyer without doing any of the work or earning it.

“She didn’t last long — and it’s easy to see why.”

With friends like these, who needs enemies?

Drunken driver in Herald Square crash was Brooklyn ex-attorney who had law license suspended over misplaced funds: cops [New York Daily News]
Accused Midtown drunk driver is an ex-immigration lawyer [New York Post]
CBS2 Sources: Driver In Herald Square Crash Was Drunk, Had Crack Pipes In Car [CBS New York]

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