A federal judge from Long Island was murdered and a boy was seriously injured by a Florida driver – who was reportedly high and told police she was Harry Potter, according to reports.
Judge Sandra Feuerstein, 75, died in Boca Raton after being beaten; The driver’s car was later located, Newsday reported, citing local police.
Boca Raton police said the investigation was underway, Newsday said.
The boy, just 6 years old, was also seriously injured when the vehicle that hit Feuerstein jumped up the curb, according to WPTV.
The hit-and-run driver, Nastasia Andranie Snape, 23, was found in nearby Delray Beach, where she had crashed her car, according to the local station.
As the police approached the car, Snape reportedly started convulsing, later fought medics and told them she was Harry Potter. The police would have found drugs in her bag.
Snape would be charged with murder of a vehicle, grounded with death and leaving the scene of an accident with injury, the TV station reported.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District tweeted condolences to Feuerstein’s family on Saturday.
“As we mourn her tragic death, we also recall Judge Feuerstein’s unwavering commitment to justice and service to the people of our district and our nation,” Acting US attorney Mark Lesko said.
Feuerstein recently chaired the case of former NYPD officer Valerie Cincinelli, who was accused of paying her boyfriend to kill her estranged husband. Cincinelli, who resigned from the police force last month, will close a plea deal on Friday.
Feuerstein, who worked in the Central Islip courthouse, graduated from the University of Vermont in 1966 and worked as a school teacher in New York City until 1971, according to a profile on the court’s website.
She received her law degree from Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law in 1979. She became a judge in Nassau County District Court in 1987 and was elected a judge of the state Supreme Court in 1994.
She was appointed associate Justice of the Second Department Appellate Division in 1999 and held that role until former President George W. Bush nominated her to the federal bank in 2003.
Feuerstein’s mother, Annette Elstein, who died at the age of 99 in April 2020, was also a judge and swore her daughter to be a bailiff. The pair would be the first mother-daughter judges in the country.
Feuerstein also taught at Hofstra University School of Law and was a past president of the Nassau County Women’s Bar Association and a former vice president of the New York State Women’s Bar Association.