Nadine Menendez hit and killed a man in Bogota in 2018: Here is what we know

In December 2018 Nadine Arslanian was in a car crash that left her car totaled and a Bergen County man dead.

She, along with her now-husband, Sen. Bob Menendez, now faces federal charges for their alleged involvement in a bribery scheme. The three-count indictment alleged that Menendez, his wife, and the three businessmen — Wael Hana, Jose Uribe and Fred Daibes — took part in the alleged plot.

The indictment alleges that between 2018 and 2022, Menendez, who until recently served as the chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and his wife “engaged in a corrupt relationship with Hana, Uribe and Daibes” to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes in exchange for Menendez using his “power and influence to protect, to enrich those businessmen and to benefit the government of Egypt.”

The crash was mentioned in the indictment

The 39-page indictment unsealed in New York last month included a vague mention of a crash in December 2018 that left the senator’s wife without a car. It goes on to say that she texted a co-defendant in the bribery scheme about her lack of car.

That co-defendant — Hana — allegedly bought her a new 2019 Mercedes in March of that year.

She was not charged

Arslanian was not charged or ticketed in any way. Police determined at the scene that because her victim, 49-year-old Richard Koop, was jaywalking and not using a crosswalk she was not at fault.

Bogota police responded to calls of a pedestrian hit by a car just after 7:35 p.m. on Dec. 12, 2018. The crash, which occurred at 155 East Main St., left Richard Koop, 49, of Bogota, fatally injured in front of his home.

“Ms. Arslanian was not at fault in this crash,” a Bogota Police Department investigation report reads. “Mr. Koop was jaywalking and did not cross the street at an intersection or in a marked crosswalk.”

Koop died at the scene

Koop was thrown several upon impact and was severely injured. Police reported that he had head trauma, was bleeding from the head and face and had likely broken his arms and legs. Responding officers did not attempt CPR because it would have been “useless” since they couldn’t stop the bleeding.

She asked for a lawyer and took back her phone

Arslanian can be heard asking for a lawyer and saying she didn’t “want to say anything wrong.” Video footage shows that Arslanian asks officers why Koop was in the road and tells police that she “didn’t do anything wrong.” She initially consented to having her phone searched but quickly changed her mind and took the phone back.

Transcript: What did Nadine Arslanian say to Bogota police at a 2018 fatal crash scene?

A retired cop picked her up and Menendez helped her clean out her car.

Though never seen on camera a man who identifies himself as a retired Hackensack cop comes to the scene to take Arslanian home. More than a month later, her boyfriend. The state’s senior senator accompanied her to get the rest of her belongings from the car.

Katie Sobko covers the New Jersey Statehouse. Email: sobko@northjersey.com

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Nadine Menendez car accident: What to know about crash in Bogota NJ