New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin’s office is probing whether law enforcement mishandled the 2018 traffic accident in which the now-wife of indicted Sen. Bob Menendez struck and killed a pedestrian — but was allowed to leave the scene without taking a sobriety test or turning over her phone for a search.
Nadine Menendez (née Arslanian), now 56, ran over Richard Koop, 49, while driving her black Mercedes-Benz at about 7:30 p.m. on Dec. 12, 2018, in Bogota, but was never charged, the New York Times and NorthJersey.com reported Wednesday.
The Post reported earlier Friday that Michael Mordaga, a former director of Hackensack police and an ex-chief of detectives in the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office, arrived on the scene within minutes of the crash and helped the powerful senator’s then-girlfriend collect her belongings from the smashed-up car and leave.
Nadine was questioned briefly but not subjected to drug or alcohol tests — and refused to let police officers examine her phone.
On Thursday, the New Jersey Attorney General’s Public Integrity Unit decided to review the incident by seeking records from law enforcement departments that responded to the fatal crash, NBC News reported.
A spokesman for Platkin’s office declined to “confirm or deny” the investigation. Reps for the Bogota Police Department and Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office also declined to comment.
“This is a case of a tragic accident, but Nadine Menendez was not at fault, did not violate any laws, and was therefore not charged with any crimes,” her attorney David Schertler told The Post.
“We are confident that any ‘re-opening’ of an investigation into the accident will confirm that conclusion. The fact of the accident has nothing to do with the allegations in the current indictment against Ms. Menendez.”
Sheri Breen, an attorney for the Koop family, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Details of the tragedy emerged weeks after Menendez and his wife were indicted in the Southern District of New York on bribery charges — the second corruption accusation the senator has faced while in office.
Just four months after the crash, prosecutors say, a New Jersey businessman offered to buy Nadine Menendez a new Mercedes-Benz black convertible while asking the senator to hinder a probe by Platkin’s office into one of the businessman’s colleagues for purported insurance fraud.
The businessman, Jose Uribe, met Nadine Menendez in a restaurant parking lot in April 2019 and handed her $15,000 in cash as a down payment on the Mercedes-Benz C-Class, according to the Manhattan indictment.
Prosecutors say Uribe arranged for monthly financing payments on the car to be made through his company or an account controlled by one of his associates.
The indictment notes the car was sought by Mrs. Menendez after an “accident” in December 2018, but did not provide further details.
Menendez and his wife are charged with accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash, gold bars, the Mercedes and an exercise machine in exchange for favors to Uribe, two other New Jersey businessmen and the Egyptian government.
The couple pleaded not guilty Sept. 27 to conspiracy to commit bribery, honest services fraud and to commit extortion under color of official right. They face up to 45 years in prison if convicted on all charges.
The businessmen — Uribe, Wael Hana and Fred Daibes — were indicted as co-conspirators and face up to 25 years behind bars upon conviction.
At the time of the crash, Arslanian told a responding patrolman that she hadn’t seen Koop, who had alcohol and marijuana in his system when he died, and the man had “jumped on my windshield.”
Dashcam footage also shows the retired detective Mordaga telling one of the responding officers that he was doing a “favor” for his “buddy’s wife,” who apparently knew Arslanian and helped her collect her belongings from the car.
“Are you guys getting a statement that you’re going to give to the prosecutor’s office?” Mordaga asks the patrolman in the footage.
“I don’t believe so, as of right now. She’s good to grab her stuff from her car,” the patrolman replied. “I believe we’re good to release her, as soon as she grabs her stuff from her car.”
A sergeant’s report on the incident later found: “Ms. Arslanian was not at fault for the motor vehicle crash and that Mr. Koop was jaywalking.”
Arslanian had been dating both Menendez, whom she married in 2020, and Douglas Anton, a lawyer who represented R. Kelly in his sex-trafficking trial, at the time of the collision, which totaled the car.
But months later when she signed the papers to accept her luxury ride, she texted Menendez, according to the Manhattan indictment against the pair.
“Congratulations mon amour de la vie,” she said. “We are the proud owners of a 2019 Mercedes.”