Nassau Coast Guard Vet Pleads Guilty Again In DWI Crash That Hurt Cop

NEW HYDE PARK, NY — A Coast Guard veteran from New Hyde Park has pleaded guilty a second time to charges stemming from a drunken driving crash that wounded a Nassau County police officer.

As Patch previously reported, Keith Dillon pleaded guilty in 2019 under a deal with prosecutors to aggravated vehicular assault, assault and drunken driving. At the time, he was sentenced to six to 12 years in prison.

An appellate court later tossed that conviction, and was scheduled to head to trial a second time. On Tuesday, Dillon, 33, pleaded guilty under a second deal with prosecutors to felony charges of aggravated vehicular assault and assault, prosecutors said, as well as a misdemeanor aggravated DWI charge.

He is again expected to be sentenced six to 12 years in prison, prosecutors said.

Prosecutors said Dillon was speeding at 70 mph in his pickup truck on Glen Cove Road in Greenvale in January 2018 when he crossed the center median and crashed head-on into an unmarked police car. He was under the influence of Xanax, the district attorney's office said, and was at nearly three times the limit for alcohol.

An event data recorder from Dillon's truck showed he was at full acceleration and never hit the brakes.

The officer was on DWI patrol at the time of the crash. The force of the crash pushed the car about 50 feet backward and rotated it about 180 degrees. Dillon's vehicle flipped and came to a stop about 30 to 40 feet from the officer’s car.

Xanax and cocaine were found in his car after the crash.

Dillon suffered a fractured ankle in the crash.

The officer suffered a brain bleed, broken elbow and leg fractures which required multiple surgeries to repair. He walks with a permanent limp and cannot fully bend his left elbow or touch his face with his left hand, prosecutors said. The officer will require additional surgeries to regain mobility in his left arm.

“Officer [Willard] Gomes’ life was forever changed by the defendant’s reckless decisions to drive at excessive speeds while extremely intoxicated and high,” Anne Donnelly, the Nassau District Attorney, said in a statement. “More than four years after this horrific head-on crash, Officer Gomes continues to fight for his recovery every day. No one should have to suffer as he has. We continue to wish Officer Gomes the best and thank him for his heroic service to Nassau County.”