State won’t charge officer in Hampton Bays pedestrian death investigation

The state will not charge off-duty Quogue Village Police Officer Jonathan Stanton in the death of 89-year-old Margaret Lucey, saying prosecutors could not prove beyond a reasonable doubt that he committed a crime.

Lucey, a Hampton Bays resident, was struck on Jan. 8, 2024, at about 10:52 a.m. while she crossed Ponquogue Avenue at Good Ground Road, where the New York State Attorney General’s Office of Special Investigation said she was in a marked crosswalk at a signalized intersection. She was taken to Stony Brook Southampton Hospital and died that same day.

In its public report released May 6, 2026, the office said investigators reviewed a 911 call and nearby security camera footage before closing the case. Under state law, the office must issue a public report when it decides not to prosecute a death involving police or peace officers. It brings a case to a grand jury only when it finds evidence that a crime may have been committed.

Southampton Town police said at the time that Stanton remained at the scene and cooperated with the investigation, and initial police reporting said no criminality was suspected. Stanton was driving his personal vehicle when the collision happened.

The decision resolves the criminal question that followed a fatal crash involving an off-duty police officer, an elderly pedestrian and one of Hampton Bays’ busiest crossings. It does not change the facts on the ground for residents who use Ponquogue Avenue and Good Ground Road every day, where visibility, traffic volume and pedestrian exposure remain central concerns.

For Suffolk County, the case now stands as a clear example of the divide between a death that demands public scrutiny and a prosecution that still may not meet the legal threshold required for criminal charges. The state’s report closes that file, but the location and the loss are likely to keep crosswalk safety in the public eye in Hampton Bays.