Expect an Indictment in August Fatality

The lawyer handling a civil suit alleging wrongful death for the family of Paul Hansen, the Noyac man found dead on the side of the road in August after the car in which he had been a passenger crashed, said on Tuesday that the district attorney seemed “pretty confident” an indictment on felony charges against the driver of the car, Sean P. Ludwick, was in the offing.

Scott D. Middleton of Campolo, Middleton & McCormick had spoken with the Hansens privately, along with Edward Burke Jr., an attorney and family friend, for about a half hour. He said his opinion was based on the limited information that John Scott Prudenti, the assistant district attorney in charge of vehicular crimes, was able to share.

Paul Hansen was in Mr. Ludwick’s 2013 Porsche when it crashed just yards away from the Hansen family house on Rolling Hill Court East in the early morning hours of Aug. 30. Police allege that Mr. Ludwick drove away from the scene on two flat tires. He was soon found standing next to his wrecked car. He has been charged with leaving the scene of a fatal accident, a felony, as well as drunken driving as a misdemeanor. If Mr. Ludwick is indicted he is likely to face multiple felony charges including man­slaughter.

Standing outside Southampton Town Justice Court in Hampton Bays, Bob Hansen, a brother, was flanked by four family members. With the holiday season here, Mr. Hansen said, in a brief talk with the press, the pain of the family’s loss is at its worst. “Cathy and my boys, we all are going to miss him terribly.”

Mr. Ludwick’s appearance before Southampton Town Justice Deborah Kooperstein Tuesday was procedural. He is free after posting a $1 million bond.

When it came time to set Mr. Ludwick’s return date, his lawyer, Benjamin Brafman, asked for a date in January. Justice Kooperstein, however, set the date as Feb. 10, under a new Southampton system, which she called I-Cal. It is a calendar for defendants charged with felonies whom prosecutors are expecting to be indicted. The later date allows more time for a grand jury to consider the charges.

 Acting New York State Supreme Court Justice Fernando Camacho, who is seated in Suffolk County’s Central Islip courthouse, is routinely assigned cases in which a defendant is accused of vehicular crimes that resulted in fatalities.

“In the event that we are required to appear before Justice Camacho, could we waive that appearance?” Mr. Brafman asked. He would not comment afterward.

Besides describing the family’s keen sense of loss during the holiday season, Mr. Hansen also said they appreciated the Suffolk district attorney’s work on the case.