A 70-year-old driver is facing criminal charges after police said he assaulted rapper Nicki Minaj’s father last week on a Mineola road, before leaving the pedestrian to die and hiding his car in his nearby garage.
Charles Polevich of Mineola remained silent on Wednesday morning as detectives took him to the Nassau police headquarters in handcuffs for virtual action on charges of leaving the scene of a fatal accident and tampering with physical evidence.
Authorities said Robert Maraj, 64, from Mineola, died on Saturday at a local hospital after Polevich’s 1992 white Volvo station wagon hit him at around 6:15 pm on Friday as he walked along the Roslyn Road on Raff Avenue. Both Maraj and Polevich were heading north, according to police, who believe Maraj was walking home or to a nearby store.
After hitting Maraj, Polevich stopped at first, but left the scene after seeing that he had injured Maraj, the commander of the Nassau police homicide squad, Det. Lieutenant Stephen Fitzpatrick said at a news conference on Wednesday.
“He was absolutely aware of what happened,” said Fitzpatrick of Polevich. “He got out of the car and looked at the deceased, got in the car and made the conscious decision to get out instead of calling 911.”
A crime report also said that Polevich stood by Maraj and asked him if “he was fine” before he returned to his car and left the area.
The video surveillance recordings in the neighborhood helped take the police to Polevich as they worked to track the movements of the old Volvo model.
“We kind of crawled straight to his home,” said Fitzpatrick, adding that Polevich had also covered the vehicle in his garage.
The lieutenant said the police did not have a chance to assess Polevich for any use of alcohol or drugs at the site because he fled. But if Polevich had stayed and been sober, there would be no criminal charges, said Fitzpatrick.
Polevich surrendered to the police on Wednesday morning with his lawyer, Michael Scotto. He then pleaded not guilty in his charge.
Nassau District Court Judge Lisa Petrocelli set Polevich’s bail at $ 250,000 in bail or $ 125,000 in cash, ordering him to hand over his passport and stay in New York State if he were released from prison. The judge also suspended his driver’s license and set the next trial for Friday.
Polevich remained in custody hours after his indictment, but Scotto said Wednesday night that his client paid bail and was released from prison.
The defense attorney also released a statement calling the deadly encounter “a tragic accident” and said that his and his client’s thoughts were with Maraj’s family.
Polevich owns an environmental drilling company in Guam and also resides in that North American territory, where he spends about nine months a year, according to the police. They said he had no criminal record or record of traffic crimes.
Carol Maraj, the victim’s ex-wife, told Newsday on Wednesday that her family was relieved by the progress of the case.
“I am very, very, very happy with the arrest,” she said, adding that all of Maraj’s children “are satisfied” that the alleged culprit in her father’s death has been arrested.
Nicki Minaj, who was born Onika Maraj in Trinidad and Tobago and raised in Queens, did not make a public statement about her father’s death or Polevich’s arrest early Wednesday evening. The 38-year-old woman said in interviews that she used music as an escape from a difficult childhood, saying her father was abusive and struggled with drug and alcohol addiction.
David Schwartz, a Garden City lawyer who previously represented Minaj’s brother, Jelani Maraj, at a local sexual abuse trial, told Newsday after the deadly accident that Robert Maraj was at his son’s trial every day and loved Jelani deeply. .
A 2017 Nassau jury convicted Jelani Maraj of sexually assaulting her now ex-stepdaughter when she was 11 years old. He is serving 25 years of life in prison.
With Joan Gralla and Cecilia Dowd