Charges dropped against Center Moriches teacher in accident with parked car

Charges were dropped Thursday against a Center Moriches middle school teacher after toxicology tests did not reveal drugs in her system when she hit a parked car in April, the Suffolk district attorney's office said.

Tracey Forman, 47, of Patchogue, had a .04 perecent blood alcohol level, said Robert Clifford, spokesman for the district attorney's office. He said that was not enough to support a charge of driving while impaired by a combination of alcohol and drugs, leading to a dismissal of that charge and leaving the scene of an accident on April 21 in Center Moriches.

Forman's attorney, Philip Murphy, said the alcohol was a remnant of drinks she had the previous night and was not the cause of the crash. Driving while ability impaired is a lesser charge than driving while intoxicated, which is .08 percent blood alcohol level or higher.

The teacher blamed the crash on health problems and said she wants to move on with her life. "It all seems very surreal to me, in a positive way," said the eighth-grade special education teacher. "It was a huge relief to know that I had in fact not done anything necessarily wrong."

Since last summer, she said, she had been feeling a bit ill, including the day of the crash. "I had been very shaky, very dizzy," she said. "I wasn't myself on my way to work that morning."

She suspects her dizziness was caused by the anti-depressants she had been taking or recently diagnosed mini-strokes.

After she hit a parked Plymouth Voyager about 8:30 a.m. on Brookfield Avenue in Center Moriches, Forman drove to the nearby high school, where she said she called 911.

SEE PHOTOSNotable LI crimes

Suffolk police said an officer noticed her vehicle in the school parking lot because it matched the description of the hit-and-run car.

Clifford said her case is still under review, with other charges possible, although he declined to give details.

Murphy said he was not told of any review or other possible charges.