Ex-Tuckahoe Chief's Car Tied to Three Hit-and-Runs, DA Probes Police Response

A car registered to a retired Tuckahoe police chief struck three vehicles across two municipalities within minutes on August 14, and now the Westchester County District Attorney's Office is examining not just the crashes themselves but how local police handled them afterward. The Infiniti sedan's path started near a CVS on Central Park Avenue in Yonkers, continued half a mile away on Falmouth Road, and ended near Main Street and Columbus Avenue in Tuckahoe, where it struck an Amazon delivery truck.

The vehicle is registered to retired Tuckahoe Police Chief John Costanzo, who spent 41 years with the department before stepping down in November 2023 and now serves as Executive Director of the Westchester County Chiefs of Police Association, according to CBS News. Yonkers Police said a witness at the Falmouth Road scene saw a woman driving the car and attempting to flee after bystanders tried to stop her. Costanzo himself was not identified as the driver in any witness statements.

Unconfirmed Allegations of a Drive Home Instead of an Arrest

Local outlet Black Westchester reported unconfirmed allegations that the driver was Donna Costanzo, the former chief's wife, and that she was allegedly intoxicated and driven home by a Tuckahoe police officer after the final crash rather than taken into custody. Neither village authorities nor the district attorney's office have publicly confirmed those specific claims while the investigation remains active. It is those allegations of official favor and possible officer misconduct that appear to have prompted the referral to county investigators.

Current Tuckahoe Police Chief Larry Rotta, after conferring with Mayor Cara Kronen and the village administrator, personally determined that the circumstances surrounding the incident and the police response required outside oversight, according to the same reporting cited by Black Westchester and corroborated by Daily Voice. Rotta requested an independent review from Westchester County authorities rather than have his own department investigate its own response.

A Specialized Unit Built for Police Misconduct Cases

The matter landed with the Westchester County District Attorney's Public Integrity and Law Enforcement Bureau, a specialized unit dedicated to investigating allegations of public corruption, official misconduct, and police officer wrongdoing. That mandate makes the bureau the natural landing spot for a case that, on its surface, began as routine property-damage collisions but now carries questions about whether a small department gave preferential treatment to a former chief's family.

Tuckahoe is a 0.6-square-mile village of roughly 7,084 residents sitting directly against the much larger city of Yonkers, meaning the Infiniti covered less than a mile total as it crossed from one municipality into the other during the string of collisions. The Tuckahoe Police Department itself is a small suburban agency, composed of just 23 sworn officers and 8 civilian employees, a size that heightens scrutiny whenever a former leader or his relatives are involved in an incident the department must handle.

No Injuries Reported, but Legal Exposure Remains

No personal injuries were reported in any of the three collisions. Under New York Vehicle and Traffic Law Section 600(1), leaving the scene of an accident involving only property damage without exchanging driver and insurance information or notifying police is a traffic infraction, punishable by up to 15 days in jail, fines up to $250, and three points on a driver's license. Amazon confirmed that its delivery vehicle sustained scratches and dents in the Tuckahoe crash, according to CBS News.

Mayor Kronen and Chief Rotta both declined interview requests regarding the ongoing probe, per the same CBS News report, with village officials citing the active DA review as the reason they cannot share further details. It remains unclear whether field sobriety tests or formal interviews were conducted at the Tuckahoe scene before the driver left, a question Black Westchester has flagged as unresolved. CBS News New York investigative reporter Tim McNicholas has been tracking the case as it moves from a string of local fender-benders into a countywide question about accountability inside one of Westchester's smallest police departments.