On May 31, Michael Hansen, a 40-year-old North Bergen man pleaded guilty to two counts of first-degree death by auto related to the deaths of Jersey City residents Russell Maffei and Marie Tauro in a fatal collision that occurred on April 2, 2017 in North Bergen.
Hansen, who was a Hudson County Corrections Officer at the time of the collision, admitted to recklessly causing the death of the victims, while intoxicated, and within 1,000 feet of a school zone. Hansen said he had been drinking prior to the collision.
On April 2, 2017, shortly after 8 p.m., North Bergen Police officers responded to a report of a pedestrian struck, and found Maffei and Tauro lying near the intersection of Paterson Plank Road and Kennedy Boulevard. They were pronounced dead later that evening.
Members of the Hudson County Sheriff’s Office and the North Bergen Police Department arrested Hansen shortly before 4 a.m. the following morning. Hansen was indicted by a Hudson County Grand Jury in October 2017.
Under the terms of the plea agreement, Hansen is expected to face 20 years in prison, ten years for the death of each victim, to be served consecutively. Under the No Early Release Act, Hansen would be required to serve 85 percent of the 20 year sentence before he is eligible for parole. He would also have 10 years of parole supervision after he is released from state prison.
Sentencing in this case has been scheduled for Aug. 2, before Judge Patrick Arre, who accepted the guilty plea. The state was represented by Assistant Prosecutor Lynne Seborowski of the Hudson County Prosecutor’s Office Homicide Unit.
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