Jessica Beauvais: LIE Crash, Trial, and 20-Year Sentence

Jessica Beauvais is a Hempstead, New York, woman who was convicted of aggravated manslaughter and other charges for killing NYPD Detective Anastasios Tsakos in a drunk-driving hit-and-run on the Long Island Expressway in April 2021. In February 2024, a Queens Supreme Court judge sentenced her to consecutive prison terms totaling between 22⅓ and 27 years, the maximum allowed under the charges a jury convicted her on.

The Crash on the Long Island Expressway

At about 1:57 a.m. on April 27, 2021, Detective Tsakos and his highway patrol partner were working the eastbound Long Island Expressway near the Clearview Expressway exit in Fresh Meadows, Queens. They had set up traffic cones and positioned a marked police vehicle to divert drivers around an earlier fatal collision. Tsakos, a 43-year-old, 14-year veteran of the NYPD’s highway unit, was standing just beyond the roadblock when Beauvais drove her 2013 Volkswagen Passat through the cones and struck him.¹ The impact threw him roughly 170 feet and severed his left leg at the knee. He died at a hospital shortly after.²

Beauvais did not stop. Police pursued her for about three miles before she drove onto a sidewalk at 221-22 Horace Harding Expressway, put the car in reverse, and struck a police cruiser.¹ Officers described her as combative when they finally took her into custody.³ She had slurred speech, bloodshot eyes, and a strong odor of alcohol. A blood test taken about two hours after the crash registered a blood-alcohol content of .15, nearly double New York’s legal limit of .08.⁴ She admitted to police that she had smoked marijuana and consumed wine earlier in the day. Her driver’s license was suspended at the time.

The Podcast Recorded Hours Earlier

In the hours before the crash, Beauvais recorded a roughly two-hour podcast episode and posted it to Facebook. She drank vodka during the recording and repeatedly disparaged police, with the episode centered on the then-ongoing trial of Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis officer who murdered George Floyd.⁵ At one point she said: “We’re not scared of the police… Like these songs, f–k the police. We want you to know we don’t give a f–k about you.”⁶

At trial, Justice Michael Aloise refused to allow prosecutors to play clips from the podcast for the jury.⁵ It resurfaced at sentencing, when both the detective’s widow and the judge spoke about it directly.

Indictment and Rejected Plea Deal

In May 2021, a Queens grand jury returned a 13-count indictment. The top count was aggravated manslaughter in the second degree, a Class C felony under New York Penal Law § 125.21 that applies when a person recklessly causes the death of a police officer acting in the course of official duties and knew or reasonably should have known the victim was an officer.⁷ The indictment also included manslaughter in the second degree, aggravated criminally negligent homicide, vehicular manslaughter in the second degree, leaving the scene of an incident without reporting, unlawful fleeing of a police officer, two counts of driving while intoxicated, reckless driving, and aggravated unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle, among other counts.

Beauvais was arraigned on May 25, 2021, pleaded not guilty, and was held without bail.⁸ At arraignment she offered a tearful statement: “I’m sorry that I hit him and that he’s dead.”⁹

The Queens District Attorney’s Office offered her a plea deal with a 16-year prison sentence. She turned it down and went to trial.¹⁰

The Trial and Verdict

The trial began in October 2023 before Justice Aloise and ran 13 days.¹¹ Assistant District Attorneys Gregory Lasak and Danielle O’Boyle led the prosecution.¹² They built the case around Beauvais’s impairment, her suspended license, her decision to drive through a marked police roadblock, and her flight. Jurors saw police body camera footage prosecutors described as showing her “incoherent and combative” after arrest. They also heard her post-arrest statements, including: “Sorry, did I hit someone? I didn’t mean to hit nobody,” “I had been drinking tonight,” and “Why did my first accident have to be a cop?”¹³

Defense attorney Jorge Santos argued that Tsakos bore some responsibility for his own death, telling jurors the detective was not wearing a reflective jacket and was distracted at the time: “He was text messaging or was on his phone. Regrettably, that’s what he was doing and he was looking down.”⁹

On October 31, 2023, the jury convicted Beauvais of aggravated manslaughter in the second degree, vehicular manslaughter in the second degree, and leaving the scene of an incident without reporting.¹²

Sentencing

On February 21, 2024, Justice Aloise sentenced Beauvais to 20 years for aggravated manslaughter in the second degree and a consecutive term of two-and-one-third to seven years for leaving the scene, followed by five years of post-release supervision. A concurrent sentence of two-and-one-third to seven years was imposed for criminally negligent homicide. The consecutive structure puts her minimum at roughly 22⅓ years before parole eligibility, with a maximum of 27 years.¹¹⁴ She was also ordered to pay a $5,000 fine.⁴

Justice Aloise said from the bench that he believed prosecutors had been lenient in what they presented to the grand jury. If the grand jury had been given the chance to indict Beauvais for depraved indifference homicide, he said, “based on the evidence presented to this court she would have been convicted and I would have unhesitantly given her life for having taken a life.”¹⁴ He also referenced the podcast, saying Beauvais had “vilified the police” in the hours before killing one.⁵

Beauvais did not speak at sentencing and, according to press accounts, refused to make eye contact with anyone in the courtroom.¹⁵

The Widow’s Statement

Detective Tsakos left behind his wife, Irene, a six-year-old daughter, and a three-year-old son.¹⁶ Irene Tsakos delivered a roughly 10-minute victim impact statement at sentencing, addressing Beauvais directly: “You killed my husband, an innocent man, a good man, who did nothing to you. That’s on your conscience.”¹⁷ She told the court: “Our son wanted me to get him a big kite so he could fly it high in the sky so his daddy could grab onto it and bring him back. He cried daily ’cause Daddy would never hold him again. He was only 3 years old.”¹⁴ On the podcast, she said: “She made a podcast hours before killing my husband for the world to hear. I heard it too. I want to say that you cannot think, speak and spread hate out into the world and expect good things to happen to you.”

A Proposed Law in Tsakos’s Name

The case inspired a proposed change to New York law. The “NYPD Highway Officer Anastasios Tsakos Act” (Senate Bill S5753 / Assembly Bill A03641) would amend the Vehicle and Traffic Law to require anyone convicted of vehicular manslaughter or aggravated vehicular homicide involving alcohol to pay child support if the victim was a parent or guardian of a minor child. Payments would continue until the child turns 18 and graduates from high school. An incarcerated offender would have one year after release to begin payments, including retroactive arrears.¹⁸

The bill was introduced by Senator Monica R. Martinez and has companion sponsors in the Assembly. As of early 2026, it remains in the Senate Transportation Committee and has not advanced to a floor vote in either chamber.¹⁸

1
Queens District Attorney’s Office. Long Island Woman Sentenced for Killing NYPD Detective in Hit-and-Run on Long Island Expressway
2
ABC 7 New York. NYPD Officer Struck: Anastasios Tsakos, Jessica Beauvais
3
New York Post. Driver Charged in Cop’s Death Had BAC Twice the Legal Limit
4
ABC 7 New York. NYPD Officer Struck: Beauvais Sentencing
5
Law & Crime. Woman Killed NYPD Officer in Hit-and-Run Hours After Recording Drunken Podcast That Vilified the Police
6
Police Magazine. Woman Charged With Killing NYPD Officer While DUI Recorded Anti-Police Podcast Hours Before
7
New York State Senate. Penal Law § 125.21 – Aggravated Manslaughter in the Second Degree
8
ABC 7 New York. Jessica Beauvais Indicted in Death of NYPD Officer Anastasios Tsakos
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NBC New York. Drunk Driver Found Guilty of Striking, Killing NYPD Highway Officer on L.I. Expressway
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Queens Chronicle. Tsakos Killer Gets 27 Years in Prison
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Fox 5 New York. Woman Sentencing: NYPD Officer Hit-and-Run Death
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Queens District Attorney’s Office. Long Island Woman Convicted of Manslaughter in Hit-and-Run That Killed NYPD Detective
13
Newsday. Jessica Beauvais, Anastasios Tsakos Jury Selection
14
New York Post. Anti-Cop Driver Who Killed NYPD Officer in Boozy Hit-and-Run Sentenced After Widow’s Plea in Court
15
NBC New York. Drunk Driver Gets Maximum Sentence for Hit-and-Run Death of NYPD Officer on LIE
16
Police1. NYPD Officer Hit, Killed on Highway Lived American Dream
17
Newsday. Jessica Beauvais Sentencing: NYPD Officer Anastasios Tsakos Death
18
New York State Senate. S5753 – NYPD Highway Officer Anastasios Tsakos Act