Ukrainian trucker involved in deadly crash wants license back while awaiting deportation
CONCORD, N.H. — A commercial truck driver from Ukraine facing a deportation order is trying to regain his license after being acquitted of causing the deaths of seven motorcyclists in New Hampshire.
“I would like to request a hearing to regain my driver’s license,” 28-year-old Volodymyr Zhukovskiy wrote to the New Hampshire Department of Safety in September, according to records obtained by The Associated Press under the state’s open records law. stands.
Zhukovskyy is awaiting an administrative hearing on the license application while facing an unresolved drunk driving charge in Connecticut, where he was arrested in New Hampshire a month before the crash. He rejected a plea deal in that case on Thursday, according to court records.
The 2022 manslaughter acquittal drew sharp comments from Gov. Chris Sununu, who said the seven motorcyclists “didn’t get justice,” and from Attorney General John Formella, who said he believed the state had proven its case.
Prosecutors argued that Zhukovskyy — who had used heroin, fentanyl and cocaine on the day of the crash — swayed back and forth repeatedly before the crash and told police he caused the crash. But a judge dismissed eight impairment charges and his lawyers said the lead motorcyclist was drunk and not looking where he was going when he lost control of his motorcycle and slid in front of Zhukovskyy’s truck.
The jury found him not guilty of multiple manslaughter and negligent homicide stemming from the collision on June 21, 2019 in Randolph, New Hampshire. The crash killed seven members of the Jarheads Motorcycle Club, an organization of Marine Corps veterans and their spouses in New England.
Zhukovskyy’s driver’s license was automatically suspended after his arrest, and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested him after the verdict, citing previous convictions for drug possession, driving with a suspended license, providing false information and theft. Zhukovskyy was transferred from a prison in New Hampshire to a federal detention center in Pennsylvania.
Zhukovskyy’s immigration attorney sought asylum for his client, who came to the U.S. from Ukraine when he was 10 years old and had permanent resident status. Last February, a judge ordered Zhukovskyy’s deportation and according to the Executive Office for Immigration Review, there is no possibility of an appeal in the case.
But it is unclear how he could be sent to a country at war with Russia. The US has paused repatriation flights to Ukraine and approved temporary protected status for qualified Ukrainians. Details of the judge’s decision have not been made public.
Zhukovskyy was released from prison in Pennsylvania on supervised release in April, according to detention and immigration officials. Those types of orders allow immigrants to live and work in the U.S. as long as they meet regularly with ICE representatives and agree to follow specific conditions.
Zhukovskyy, who has pleaded not guilty to the charges in Connecticut, did not respond to requests for an interview from The Associated Press.
The administrative hearing on his driving privileges has been postponed at least twice. Recovery would depend largely on whether Zhukovskyy “materially contributed” to the crash, said Earle Wingate, the attorney representing him. He said he wanted Zhukovskyy to appear in person, but the prosecutor received a request to have Zhukovskyy appear by video, citing security concerns.
“The car accident was high-profile and affected an inordinate number of the victims’ family and friends and is logically the cause of heightened emotions for all,” prosecutor Stephen Kace said in his motion.
Wingate agreed that “emotions could run high,” but noted that security was maintained during Zhukovskyy’s trial.
Motorcyclists from New Hampshire, Massachusetts and Rhode Island died in the 2019 crash.
At the time of the crash, Zhukovskyy’s commercial driver’s license, issued in Massachusetts, should have been revoked following his arrest in Connecticut.
Connecticut officials alerted the Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles, but Zhukovskyy’s license was not suspended due to a backlog of out-of-state reports of driving violations. In one study, federal investigators found similar backlog problems in Rhode Island, New Hampshire and at least six other jurisdictions.