Ex-Yonkers employee sentenced in drunken crash that killed teenager

The man who killed Yonkers teenager Christopher Jack Hackett in a drunken crash had so many options that night in August 2022, the boy's aunt told a crowded courtroom Thursday.

He could have called a cab or an Uber, asked a friend for a ride or even walked home. Instead he got behind the wheel after 17 drinks and changed the lives of Hackett's loved ones forever.

"Just like somebody putting a bullet in a gun they know that if they pull the trigger they could kill someone," Michelle Kern said in Westchester County Court. "Stephen Dolan knew he was going to get drunk and then drive home. He knew the risks and he was OK with his decision."

Moments later, Dolan, 47, said he could never make up for what he did and was then sentenced to 1 1/2 to 4 1/2 years in state prison, a punishment Hackett's family has blasted as inadequate.

The 16-year-old Hackett, known as CJ, was going to start his junior year at Archbishop Stepinac High School the following month. Classmates and other friends joined his many relatives in court for the sentencing.

Early on Aug. 3, 2022, after spending hours drinking and playing darts at a Bronx bar, Dolan crashed his van into Hackett as the teenager and a friend were riding electric scooters on McLean Avenue near Cricklewood North. Dolan stopped briefly but then drove off. Hackett was taken to Jacobi Hospital, where he died from his injuries.

Detectives used a broken Chevrolet emblem, surveillance video and license plate readers to identify the van and it was found the following day. Dolan acknowledged drinking more than usual but claimed he didn't know he hit Hackett, only that he thought he might have something like a road cone.

He was fired weeks later from his job as a Yonkers public works employee.

Three months ago, Dolan pleaded guilty to second-degree vehicular manslaughter, leaving the scene of a fatal accident and driving while intoxicated. He was promised the 1 1/2 to 4 1/2 year prison term and the following week turned himself into the county jail to begin serving the anticipated sentence.

Kern described CJ as an ideal older sibling to his sister and brother, a devoted son and grandson and a driven student who excelled at school. She recalled the harrowing phone calls alerting his family to the crash, the hours of bedside prayers at the hospital and making deals with God, before the gut-punch of the words "time of death."

She called Dolan a coward because he had to have known what he did when CJ's body hit his windshield and the boy's 15-year-old friend screamed for help, but instead ran off to avoid responsibility.

"We hope you can live with what you have done because we sure have to," Kern told Dolan. "We hope every time you close your eyes that day haunts you and the guilt of leaving a young, good boy to die weighs on you."

Assistant District Attorney James Bavero called the case "every parent's worst nightmare" and said Hackett was "robbed of the opportunity to grow up and fulfill his potential all based upon the selfish conduct of the defendant."

Dolan read from prepared remarks and said he would spend the rest of his life trying to make amends for what he had done.

"There is nothing I could say to make up for the pain I've caused," he said. "I deserve to live with the fact that I broke the hearts of so many people. To the Hackett family, I will forever live with the fact that you have to pay the price for the choices I have made. I am so ashamed."

Dolan's sentence is the midpoint of the range he faced, from probation to 2 1/3 to 7 years in prison. Acting state Supreme Court Justice James McCarty, who called Dolan's actions "irresponsible", "cowardly" and "repulsive", recognized the family wanted the maximum prison term and explained his reasons for not granting it.

Maximum penalties in plea deals are rare. The judge said his decision was based on several factors, including that Dolan had never previously been arrested, raised three children on his own, expressed remorse and accepted full responsibility and that his plea "spared everyone the rigors and uncertainties of a trial."

Kern said CJ's parents Yvonne and Chris and the rest of the family take comfort knowing that 11 people were helped by the donation of CJ's organs. And his memory will live on, she said, through a scholarship fund set up in his name and hopefully CJ's Law, proposed legislation that would more than double the penalty for anyone convicted of leaving the scene of an accident in which a minor is killed.

If passed, the crime would become a higher level felony punishable by up to 15 years.

This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: Ex-Yonkers employee sentenced in drunk crash that killed Yonkers teen