An off-duty NYPD detective had more than two and a half times the legal limit of alcohol in his system when he ran down and killed a 67-year-old Bronx woman, authorities said today.
Kevin Spellman’s blood-alcohol level was a stunning 0.21 even five and a half hours after the Friday morning accident, when he was finally tested. The legal limit is 0.08.
Because Spellman initially refused to take a Breathalyzer test, investigators had to get a court order to test his blood, resulting in the delay.
Since the human body dissipates alcohol in the blood as a drinker sobers up, the evidence indicates that Spellman was much drunker when he struck Drana Nikac around 6:30 a.m.
Word of Spellman’s test results came as friend and relatives viewed Nikac’s body at a Bronx funeral home before it is taken to Albania for burial.
Commissioner Ray Kelly said he had impaneled a commission to try to speed up its booze testing of DWI suspects.