This officer is to be commended for his attitude

**Growler** · 11-20-07, 09:09 PM

Lost his leg in accident, but traffic officer has compassion for driver

BY BARBARA ROSS and CORKY SIEMASZKO
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Tuesday, November 20th 2007, 4:00 AM

Sipkin/News Former traffic cop Tarrell Lee (r.) attends Jets game with Police Commissioner Ray Kelly. Lee lost part of his right leg in 2005 after being struck by a motorist on E. 60th St.

An NYPD traffic officer who lost a leg in a horrific accident could have come to court Monday seeking revenge. Instead, he sought compassion for the driver who crippled him for life.
"I'm here for justice, not revenge," Tarrell Lee told Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Robert Stolz. "I know logically I should be mad, but being mad isn't going to help anything."
Then Lee watched quietly from the back of a Manhattan courtroom as Dr. Mihai Merzianu, who faced up to seven years in prison, was sentenced to just one day in jail for causing the traffic accident that changed Lee's life forever.
"It's fair because it's justice," said Lee after Merzianu was marched out in handcuffs. "But he won't go through what I went through. They could have given him 50 years and I'd still be without a leg."
Lee, 28, of Flushing, Queens, said Merzianu never apologized for the Sept. 12, 2005, accident. He said that's "okay ... that's how some people are. God will judge him."
Lee, who lost his right leg from the knee down and wears a titanium prosthesis, said he knows he could sue the Buffalo oncologist for everything he's got, but he doesn't intend to do that.
He said he got an insurance settlement, a desk job at the NYPD - and a new view of life.
"I'm turning negative energy into positive energy," he said.
Merzianu, 38, a Romanian immigrant, was convicted of reckless assault after a jury trial. In addition to a day in jail, he was given five years' probation, but he won't lose his medical license or be deported, his lawyer, Bruce Maffeo, said.
Lee was directing traffic at E. 60th St. and York Ave. around 5:30 p.m. when his life was forever changed.
Merzianu was in Manhattan to pick up research papers at Memorial Sloan-Kettering and in a hurry to get on the northbound FDR.
Merzianu tried to jump the line of cars by driving his Mazda into the northbound York Ave. traffic. He slammed into a Chevy SUV so hard the truck skidded into Lee and pinned him against a concrete barrier.
Lee underwent 10 hours of surgery, spent 35 days in a medically induced coma, underwent painful rehab and has had to learn how to walk again.
Stolz praised Lee for showing "a remarkable degree of compassion. ... I am really pleased that you ... are past this and that you have found it in you to understand that the object of this proceeding is to render justice, not simply revenge."
bross@nydailynews.com

He truly has compasion for someone who changed his life forever. The scum never apologized to officer and got one day in jail

**Illiy** · 11-20-07, 09:21 PM

That just amazes me... kudos to the officer...

**GumbyDammit** · 11-21-07, 04:26 AM

One day?? It's a good thing he didn't come for revenge, all he got from the judge was a slap in the face.

**jmur5074** · 11-21-07, 05:16 AM

One day in jail for that guy is an insult to every LEO in America.

**conalabu** · 11-21-07, 06:51 AM

Bigger man than I probably would have been. Good to have people to look up to. Nice of the media to have printed something good about one of us, too.

**vicat777** · 11-21-07, 08:40 AM

I thought it was interesting that the story said that the officer received an insurance settlement, and not a monetary settlement from the Doctor himself. Terrible story, but kudos to NYPD for keeping him on the job.