NY Lawyer Arrested in Hit-and-Run Accident

A lawyer from a suburb of Buffalo, N.Y., has been charged with leaving the scene of a fatal accident in a hit-and-run that killed a college student over the weekend.

Police say lawyer John P. Duffy, 41, drove an SUV that struck and killed the student as she was walking back to campus after working at a haunted house, the Buffalo News reports. Duffy turned himself in Tuesday evening, Newsday reports.

A police detective told the Buffalo News that Duffy said he thought he had struck something but didn’t realize it was a person until later. Killed in the accident was 19-year-old Meghan Sorbera, who was studying forensic science at Hilbert College.

Duffy practices law in the Buffalo suburb of Hamburg. The website for his firm says he is a general practice lawyer. Duffy plans to plead not guilty, according to his lawyer, Dan Chiacchia.