Statements from police video of Amandeep Singh, of Roslyn, charged in crash that killed 2 teen tennis stars, should not be presented at trial, defense attorneys say

Defense lawyers for the Roslyn man charged with killing 14-year-old high school tennis stars Ethan Falkowitz and Drew Hassenbein in a wrong-way drunken driving crash want to keep police body camera footage taken minutes after the collision from being introduced at the upcoming trial, arguing it contains interviews that violate their client's rights.

Attorneys James Kousouros and Edward Sapone will go before Nassau County Supreme Court Justice Helene Gugerty on Monday to argue that statements by Amandeep Singh, 35, should be kept from the jury because their client was not informed of his right to remain silent.

At issue for the defense are two videos part of the court file, one in which Singh is recorded lingering next to a dumpster in a dark loading bay behind the Jericho Atrium at 10:40 p.m. shortly after prosecutors say he fled the scene of the crash on May 3, 2023.

“These statements were the product of custodial police interrogation and were obtained without advising Mr. Singh of his Miranda rights or in violation of those rights,” Sapone wrote in court papers. “Visually, the positioning of the officers as compared to that of Mr. Singh makes it clear that he was surrounded and not free to leave.”

Even after officers read his Miranda rights in the hospital at 1:10 the next morning, prosecutors say, Singh continued to talk to officers. 

“Do you think I’m going for life?” he asked from his hospital bed, prosecutors say. “They said two 14-year-old kids died — you think they might be drinking too?”

He added, “That’s it. My life is done, man.”

A law enforcement source said the driver of the car carrying the teens tested negative for alcohol at the scene of the crash, and roadside surveillance video shows their vehicle obeying traffic laws and traveling at or below the speed limit. Neither Hassenbein nor Falkowitz was behind the wheel. Prosecutors have not charged any other drivers or their passengers in the crash.

A Nassau County grand jury indicted Singh on aggravated vehicular homicide, several counts of vehicular manslaughter, drunken driving and leaving the scene of an accident — 15 counts in all. Singh's blood alcohol content registered 0.18%, more than double the legal limit to drive, prosecutors said. 

According to his criminal complaint, Singh spent the evening drinking tequila and snorting cocaine.

“We were having a good time. It was a friend’s thing and that was it,” he told police, according to one of the videos.

Authorities say Singh then got behind the wheel of the red 2021 Dodge Ram TRX and sped southbound down North Broadway, swerving around cars at speeds up to 95 mph until he smashed into the 2019 black Alfa Romeo carrying four members of the Roslyn High School varsity tennis team, including Falkowitz and Hassenbein, prosecutors say.

The impact launched his Dodge into the air, according to authorities, and it spun around and landed 300 feet away.

The car with the teens ricocheted off a Volvo and then struck a tree, killing the two boys and injuring two others. The driver and passenger of the Volvo were not harmed, according to court records.

It was around 10:20 on a Friday night. Falkowitz and Hassenbein had just had dinner with two older teammates to celebrate winning a tennis match.

The teens' deaths shook the Roslyn community. Young tennis players from schools as far as Connecticut, Philadelphia, Poland and Ukraine reached out to express their shock and grief.

Witnesses told police that the driver of the Dodge fled on foot past the Whole Foods Market toward the rear of the Jericho mall, where Singh was first spotted.

In the body camera recording, Singh appears disoriented — his speech slurred, his head bleeding. He first denies all involvement and later confirms elements of the crash, according to the footage submitted in the case file by defense attorneys.

According to the police body camera recordings, Singh makes a series of contradictory statements. He denies owning a truck and then admits to owning a TRX like the one involved in the crash. Singh tells the officers he’s from the city, then admits he lives in Roslyn.

Singh said his friends dropped him off and he was looking for them in the loading bay next to the dumpster.

“I’m not hiding,” Singh says in the recording when the officer asks why he’s hanging out by an industrial-sized garbage container late on a Friday night. “I’m trying to find my friends. I’m lost.”

In the video, Singh denied owning a red truck and repeated he was lost and trying to find his “boys.” “I didn’t do anything wrong,” he says on the recording.

Separate building video surveillance footage not provided in the court file recorded the crash around 10:20 p.m., according to lead prosecutor Michael Bushwack. It captured Singh crawling out of the truck with the help of witnesses and fleeing the scene, Bushwack wrote in court papers.

Singh, who was dressed in a black shirt and pants, told police he was coming from a bachelor party.

That night, Bushwack said in court papers, Singh bought five glasses of Casamigos tequila and another of Macallan scotch at one bar, and had another drink at a second bar, according to prosecutors. Police found an empty bottle of Casamigos tequila behind the driver seat of the pickup after the crash.

In the dark loading bay behind the mall, Singh told police his friend had dropped him off there and someone had attacked him, hitting him in the back of the head, causing him to bleed.

“I did not drive. They left me here. I’m just trying to find my way back home,” he tells the officers. At times, his speech is unintelligible.

“I live in Queens and I live in Long Island. I’m just trying to find my way back home. I didn’t drive. They left me here,” he says.

Singh mentions Edison and claims he was at a party in New Jersey.

When the officers tell him he’s on Long Island, he says, “This is not Long Island.”

He denied driving and says, “I’m just trying to get out of here.”

Defense lawyers say the statements were part of an interrogation of their client conducted while he was in custody, but the Nassau County District Attorney’s Office says they were merely asking him questions to ascertain if he had any connection to the crash. He was not handcuffed nor physically restrained during the conversation.

“Bro, I’m not really in trouble, but I feel like I’m arrested or something,” he says to the officers.

Officer Kyle Fagan responds, “You’re not under arrest, you’re just detained.” He adds, “We just have you detained until we figure everything out.”

Singh appears disoriented and can’t answer basic police questions, like what kind of car he drives or the color of his phone.

The lights of emergency vehicles and police cars flash in the background of the video.

“Did something happen?” he asks. “I’m being detained, so something must have happened.”

Singh agrees to a Breathalyzer in the video.

Prosecutors say he was not physically restrained and conversed with officers freely, making the statements he made admissible at trial.

At times, the officers chatted with Singh about cars, Formula 1 racing, the Knicks, expensive watches and family, but he never asked to leave. They asked him to keep his hands out of his pockets and rest them on the top of a waist-high retaining wall.

Around 11:15 p.m., police brought two witnesses to the loading bay in a patrol car to see if they recognized him from the crash. One witness did not confirm that he was the man she saw running across the Whole Foods parking lot. After that, a second witness, captured on another body camera recording, brought by the loading bay by in a police car identified Singh and placed him in the truck after the crash. He confirmed Singh fled the scene, the video shows.

In the video, an officer reiterates what the witness says and relays what he would like to be included in the police report regarding the identification.

Even if the judge excludes the evidence, prosecutors say they have strong evidence tying Singh to the crime. His blood was found on the air bag that deployed during the collision, and investigators found powder from the bag’s discharge on his shirt.

The case is scheduled to go to trial in the fall.

Singh turned down a plea offer in November that would have him serving 8½ to 25 years for aggravated vehicular homicide.