NYPD Detective Kevin Spellman was blind drunk :drunk: when he slammed a car into a Bronx grandmother and killed her, a law enforcement source said Monday.
The off-duty detective had at least 2-1/2 times the legal limit of alcohol in his system when he mowed down 67-year-old Drane Nikac, the source said.
The revelation that Spellman registered a 0.21 on a blood-alcohol test came on the same day that grieving relatives of the beloved Albanian immigrant gathered for her wrenching wake in the Bronx.
Spellman, 42, is charged with DWI, vehicular homicide and criminally negligent homicide. He is out on $100,000 bond.
The detective's blood-alcohol level was astoundingly high despite a five-hour delay in drawing Spellman's blood after he twice refused a Breathalyzer test - at the scene and at the precinct stationhouse.
Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said yesterday that in the wake of Nikac's death he wants to confer with prosecutors about speeding up the process by which suspected drunken drivers have their blood drawn.
The NYPD had to defend itself against coverup charges in September when Brooklyn Officer Andrew Kelly refused to take the test after running down a Brooklyn minister's daughter. After a seven-hour delay, no alcohol was detected in his system.
A 22-year veteran whose nickname is "Spike," Spellman finished his shift at midnight - about six hours before he slammed his car into the elderly woman at 6:30 a.m. Friday as she pushed a shopping cart filled with returnable cans and bottles.
The high-profile detective, who had been drinking at a bar, was so hammered he didn't realize he had hit a woman, court records revealed earlier.
"I didn't see that guy," a glassy-eyed Spellman said in a slurred voice. "He came out of nowhere."
Eerily, Spellman used a similar defense 13 years ago when he rammed his car into another vehicle and badly hurt a teenager, court records revealed.
Spellman and a buddy were heading home after an early morning workout in Yonkers when he rammed his Nissan into the side of a car driven by Luis Pagan.
The smashup sent glass shards flying into the face of Pagan's 13-year-old daughter, Krystal, causing injuries that required reconstructive surgery, the records show.
Spellman "did not see the Pagan vehicle until it was directly in front of him," he claimed in a countersuit saying that Pagan was speeding on Aug. 2, 1996.
The judge rejected Spellman's suit and ordered his insurance company to pay the Pagans.
Reached by telephone, Pagan declined to discuss Spellman's current troubles.
Meanwhile, hundreds gathered at the Fargena Brothers funeral home in the Bronx to say farewell to Nikac, whose body will be flown to Montenegro today for burial.
"It's sad how she died," said her son-in-law, Noni Juncaj, 48. "Those people should protect us. We look at them not to kill us."
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