Bronx Man Charged in High-Speed Chase, Crash of Stolen Car
By Lindsay Emery
A Bronx man has been charged for leading a Putnam County Sheriff’s deputy on a high-speed chase up the Taconic Parkway earlier this month in a stolen vehicle before crashing the car in Dutchess County, police said Tuesday.
Brandon Scott Cohn, 27, faces two felonies, first-degree reckless endangerment and third-degree criminal possession of stolen property as well as the misdemeanor charges of third-degree unlawful fleeing a police officer in a motor vehicle and reckless driving. Various vehicle and traffic law charges were also levied.
Cohn, who was uninjured in the crash, was arraigned and subsequently released to appear in court at a later date. A passenger in the stolen car, 27-year-old Toniann Orichello, sustained minor injuries. She was issued an appearance ticket on an unspecified charge.
Police said on Apr. 8, Deputy Amanda Collier was on patrol in the Town of Putnam Valley when she received a notification that a stolen vehicle, a 2006 grey Acura, was traveling northbound on the Taconic Parkway. The notification to law enforcement agencies was generated by a license plate reader.
Eight minutes after positioning herself on the Taconic overpass at Bryant Pond Road, Collier spotted the stolen vehicle and entered the northbound parkway. She confirmed the license plate and vehicle were the same as in the alert.
Collier activated her lights and siren in hopes of pulling over the vehicle, police said. Cohn started to slow down, but then moved to the left lane and sped away, recklessly operating the vehicle at high speed, according to the Sheriff’s Department.
Police said that Cohn exited the parkway onto I-84, then while attempting to get off at the Ludingtonville Road exit, the vehicle went through the grass, struck the guardrail and flipped three times, landing in the right eastbound lane of I-84.
The owner of the vehicle, a 59-year-old Bronx woman, was notified by the Sheriff’s Department and advised how to proceed with the accident report and to contact her insurance company.
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