An off-duty New York City police officer will not face criminal charges in the death of a 45-year-old Haverstraw man who was struck and killed while crossing Route 303 in Orangeburg last December, the New York Attorney General’s Office of Special Investigation announced. William Huertas had just finished his shift at Lowe’s and was walking across the four-lane roadway, outside a marked crosswalk, when he was hit by a pickup truck driven by Officer Justin Belhouji shortly after 9 p.m.
According to Fingerlakes1.com, the Office of Special Investigation concluded that prosecutors would not be able to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Belhouji committed a crime, and the case will not be presented to a grand jury. As reported by Daily Voice, the crash happened at around 9:05 p.m. on Dec. 13, 2025, on Route 303, with Huertas crossing the roadway in the dark after leaving his job at the Lowe’s located at 206 Route 303.
A Dark Stretch Near a Pedestrian Bridge
The collision occurred beneath the Joseph B. Clarke Rail Trail pedestrian bridge in Orangeburg, an area witnesses described as very dark. Lowe’s security footage showed Huertas leaving the store at 9:01 p.m., just minutes before he was struck. Belhouji, who was driving his personal pickup truck north after leaving work, told investigators he saw Huertas suddenly appear near the passenger side of the vehicle, then braked and swerved to try to avoid him.
Belhouji estimated he had been traveling between 40 and 50 mph but said he did not know exactly how fast he had been going at the moment of impact. Other witnesses described the truck swerving before it came to a stop, and a driver traveling behind Belhouji said she had been going the speed limit and believed his speed was consistent with hers. The posted speed limit on that stretch of Route 303 is 40 mph.
Conflicting Speed Estimates and a Refused Data Download
A collision investigator estimated that Huertas came to rest about 200 feet from the point of impact and calculated a body-throw speed of 52 to 63 mph based on that distance — a figure the same investigator cautioned could overestimate the truck’s actual speed if Huertas was lifted onto the vehicle before falling, since the calculation assumed he was thrown the full distance. Despite that higher estimate, the investigator ultimately concluded Belhouji had not been traveling at excessive speed and could not determine the truck’s actual speed with certainty.
Investigators were unable to resolve that uncertainty with hard data: Belhouji declined to give permission for investigators to download his truck’s event data recorder, which can capture speed, braking and steering information around a crash, though such recorders do not always preserve data since an impact does not always trigger that preservation. His vehicle also had no dashboard camera, and available video footage did not establish which lane Huertas occupied or which lane the truck was in before the collision.
No Signs of Impairment, Distraction or Red-Light Violations
Orangetown police found no indication of alcohol or drug impairment in testing. Belhouji’s preliminary breath test registered a blood-alcohol concentration of 0.00 percent, and he passed two separate eye tests for impairment. Phone records showed no calls or text messages placed at or around the time of the collision. Investigators also found no evidence that Belhouji had driven through a steady red light or stop sign.
One violation did surface during the investigation: Belhouji’s truck windshield transmitted only 28 percent of light, well under the state’s required minimum of 70 percent light transmission. A reconstruction investigator said the illegal tint further reduced the driver’s ability to see and react at night. The Attorney General’s office reviewed that windshield violation alongside the rest of the evidence but concluded that the illegal tint alone did not elevate the traffic violation to criminally negligent homicide.
The Legal Threshold Prosecutors Could Not Meet
Under New York law, criminally negligent homicide requires proof that a person failed to recognize a substantial and unjustifiable risk of death and that the failure amounted to a gross deviation from how a reasonable person would act. Per Daily Voice, prosecutors must show beyond a reasonable doubt that a driver failed to perceive that risk and grossly departed from reasonable care; the Office of Special Investigation’s legal analysis further characterized the required conduct as seriously blameworthy and risk-creating. The Office of Special Investigation’s report cited the absence of impairment, phone use or red-light and stop-sign violations, along with the reconstruction findings and witness accounts of the truck’s speed, in finding insufficient evidence that Belhouji’s conduct met that criminal standard.
New York State Executive Law requires a public report whenever an investigation into a death caused by a police officer does not result in charges, which is how the findings in Huertas’s case became public. The report was formally released on Oct. 21, closing out the Office of Special Investigation’s inquiry into Huertas’s death.
Huertas Died After Efforts to Save Him
After the crash, Belhouji applied his brakes seconds before impact, then called 911 and began chest compressions on Huertas, with a passing nurse stopping to help until an ambulance crew arrived, according to the same account from Daily Voice. Huertas was taken to Montefiore Nyack Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 9:42 p.m. The medical examiner attributed his death to multiple blunt impact injuries and classified the death as an accident.
Similar Cases Across New York
The decision echoes other recent cases in which off-duty officers avoided criminal charges after fatal pedestrian crashes. In Monticello, Sgt. George Mendez was not criminally charged after striking 72-year-old Steven Christy on Pleasant Street, according to News 12 Westchester. A Cheektowaga police officer was similarly cleared without criminal charges following a fatal crash in December 2025, as reported by WIVB.
