Crime & Safety
Attorney For Brick Woman Charged In Vehicular Homicide May Question Drug Test
Crystal Vallee said to be under the influence of drugs at the time of fatal accident
The attorney for Crystal Vallee, the 26-year-old Brick woman who was charged in a fatal accident in Toms River where authorities say she was under the influence of cocaine when she struck a North Jersey man, was in court Monday to address the possibility of obtaining a legal expert for her case.
At a pretrial conference and motion hearing before Superior Court Judge Wendel E. Daniels, it was decided that Vallee’s attorney, James N. Butler Jr., will argue a motion on Aug. 26 to obtain an expert in respect to Vallee’s level of intoxication at the time of the accident.
“The motion will request that the public defender’s office pay for her to get an expert,” said Butler.
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Vallee's vehicular homicide charge stems from a Nov. 2009 incident where police say she fatally struck Mark Infante, 54, of West Orange, after having used cocaine. Infante, an attorney who had recently been nominated to become a judge, was a pedestrian.
The accident occurred on Route 35 in the Ocean Beach section of Toms River, where Infante maintained a vacation home. Vallee is also facing numerous, unrelated drug, theft and in Ocean and Monmouth counties.
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Vallee, whose last known address was on West Princeton Ave. in Brick, has been lodged in the Ocean County Jail, Toms River, since June 20, jail records show. Bail has been set at $200,000 on the vehicular homicide charge, $15,000 on a theft by deception charge, $15,000 on a fraudulent use of a credit card charge and $2,500 on the prostitution charge.
Vallee was last arrested around 6:30 p.m. June 15 after she propositioned an undercover Seaside Heights Police detective, Elijah Bryant. Bryant brought Vallee to police headquarters for processing and released her on a summons, but police later found out that Vallee had provided a false name, according to Seaside Heights Police Detective Steve Korman.
She was re-arrested June 19 by Ptl. Joseph Fastige, and charged with hindering apprehension based on providing a false name, Korman said. Additionally, Korman said, there was a bench warrant out for her arrest connected to the vehicular homicide case for failure to show up at a court appearance in May.
