Grieving Long Island cop recalls responding to fatal drunken crash only to find his officer wife was the victim

A devastated Long Island cop recalled through tears in court Monday how he responded to a fatal drunken wreck while on duty — only to learn that his wife, a fellow-cop, was the victim.Nassau County cop Francisco Malaga, speaking at the sentencing of killer drunk driver Matthew Smith in Suffolk County court, said he was on patrol on Jan.31 and was just doing his job when he arrived at the tragic crash scene, when he suddenly realized his family had been shattered.

His 42-year-old wife, police Officer Patricia Espinoza, lay dying in the wreckage.“I came upon the crash moments after it happened and I stopped, because that’s what police officers do,” a tearful Malaga told Judge Timothy Mazzei.“I thought I was responding to help someone I had never met.

Instead, I found my wife, Patricia.“Nothing in my years as a police officer prepared me for that moment,” he said. “I watched the love of my life slip away — and that image will stay with me the rest of my life.”Smith, 21, was returning from a night of binge drinking at the James Joyce bar in Patchogue — and even mocked pals who pleaded him not to get behind the wheel, when he smashed into Espinoza’s car.Smith, who had a blood-alcohol level more than twice the legal limit, blew through a red light at about 70 mph in a 30 mph zone and slammed his Chevy Silverado pickup truck into Espinoza’s vehicle.The married mom was rushed to Stony Brook Hospital, where she was pronounced dead.Suffolk County cops found a bottle of Bacardi rum and a shot glass in Smith’s truck.The reckless drunk pleaded guilty last month to aggravated vehicular manslaughter and other charges, and was hit with a sentence of seven-and-a-half years to 22 years in state prison.Mazzei wiped away tears as relatives delivered victim impact statements in a courtroom packed with kin and cops, among them Philadelphia Police Officer David Almeida, the dead woman’s brother.“As a police officer, I have responded to shootings, stabbin...