New York's attorney general will not seek criminal charges against an off-duty Monticello police sergeant who struck and killed a pedestrian last year, but her office says sheriff's deputies failed to collect evidence and initially let the sergeant drive away in a vehicle that was unregistered and uninspected.
The Office of Special Investigation's 15-page report, released Monday, says prosecutors could not prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Sgt. George Mendez committed a crime in the death of 72-year-old Steven Christy. Its findings also call for more impartial crash investigations and body-worn cameras for the Monticello Police Department and Sullivan County Sheriff's Office.
Mendez was off duty and driving his own SUV at about 6 p.m. Nov. 25, 2025, when he struck Christy on Pleasant Street near High Street in the village of Monticello. Christy was crossing the street while pushing a shopping cart south of a marked crosswalk. It was dark and raining, and the road was wet, according to the report.
Christy was taken first to Garnet Health Medical Center and then to Westchester Medical Center, where he died Nov. 30. A medical examiner attributed his death to complications from blunt-force trauma to the head. The attorney general's office began investigating the afternoon he died.
Why the office declined charges
Mendez told a responding deputy he had stopped at a red light, then accelerated to about 20 mph before striking Christy roughly 50 feet beyond the intersection. He said he did not see Christy until the collision. The road's posted speed limit is 30 mph.
Responding officers told investigators they saw no signs that Mendez was impaired. A deputy reported a 0.00 reading from a portable breath test, but the device did not produce or preserve a printout, and no officer body-camera footage recorded the test.
The office reviewed police reports, officer interviews, medical records, vehicle photographs and Mendez's phone records. It found no evidence that he was speeding, using his phone, impaired or otherwise driving dangerously before the crash. Investigators did not locate an eyewitness or video of the collision.
The report says a criminally negligent homicide case would require proof of seriously blameworthy conduct beyond a failure to perceive a risk. With the available evidence, the office concluded a prosecutor could not meet that standard at trial. Its decision not to charge Mendez is a criminal-law finding, not an endorsement of how the crash was investigated.
Evidence the report says was lost
Monticello's police chief asked the Sullivan County Sheriff's Office to take over the investigation because the driver was a member of his department. But sheriff's deputies did not call a state police collision-reconstruction team, thoroughly inspect or seize Mendez's SUV, or attempt to obtain data from its event recorder at the scene, the attorney general's office found.
The sheriff's office has no officers trained in collision reconstruction and no policy specifying when to seek state police assistance, the report says. A supervising corporal told investigators he saw no skid marks or debris and believed Christy would survive. He cited an understanding that a medical helicopter had been canceled and Christy was headed to a smaller hospital.
Medical records described Christy as breathing but unresponsive when paramedics arrived. An ambulance record said no air transport was available, while a sheriff's report said weather prevented an airlift. The attorney general's office said it was apparent that night that Christy had suffered serious physical injury.
Mendez's vehicle had an expired registration, no current inspection and no front license plate, according to the report. Deputies did not ticket him that evening and allowed him to leave with the SUV. They issued registration and inspection tickets Nov. 28, after learning Christy was in critical condition and unlikely to survive.
The SUV was never seized or examined by crash reconstruction specialists. Weeks later, Mendez declined through his attorney to consent to an inspection or examination of its event recorder. He also declined an interview with the attorney general's investigators. The office said it lacked sufficient evidence by then to obtain a search warrant for the vehicle.
The report says valuable evidence may have been lost and questions whether a civilian with a registration expired for more than a year and a half would have been allowed to drive away from a serious-injury crash. It recommends that the sheriff's office investigate officers from other agencies to the same standards it applies to civilians.
Camera recommendations
Neither the Monticello officers nor the sheriff's deputies who responded wore body cameras. The attorney general's office says footage could have documented Mendez's condition, his statements and the breath test, and improved public transparency. Leaders of both agencies told investigators they could not afford camera programs.
The office again urged state lawmakers to require body-worn and dashboard cameras for police departments and to fund agencies that cannot afford them. Its report closes the criminal investigation without charges against Mendez while leaving those recommendations for the agencies and Legislature.
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