Attorney General James’ Office of Special Investigation Releases Report on Death of Steven Christy

NEW YORK – New York Attorney General Letitia James’ Office of Special Investigation (OSI) today released its report on the death of Steven Christy, who died on November 30, 2025 following a motor vehicle incident involving an off-duty Village of Monticello Police Department (MPD) sergeant on November 25 in Monticello, Sullivan County. After a thorough investigation, which included interviews with responding MPD officers and responding Sullivan County Sheriff’s Office (SCSO) deputies, review of police incident reports and photographs of the involved vehicle, and comprehensive legal analysis, OSI determined that a prosecutor would not be able to prove beyond a reasonable doubt at trial that the involved sergeant committed a crime, and therefore criminal charges are not warranted in this case.

At 6 p.m. on November 25, an off-duty MPD sergeant was driving in a personal vehicle southbound on Pleasant Street toward the intersection with High Street in Monticello. The intersection is controlled by traffic lights and has a marked pedestrian crosswalk and a crosswalk signal light.  After the sergeant passed the intersection with High Street, he struck Mr. Christy, who was crossing Pleasant Street on foot in an area where there was not a crosswalk. Mr. Christy was transported to a local hospital, and later transferred to a larger hospital, where he was pronounced dead on November 30.

In New York, proving criminally negligent homicide requires proof beyond a reasonable doubt that a person caused a death when they failed to perceive a substantial and unjustifiable risk that death would occur; that the failure to perceive the risk was a gross deviation from a reasonable person’s standard of care; and that the person engaged in blameworthy conduct. In this case, there is no evidence that the sergeant was speeding, driving while distracted or on his cell phone, impaired by drugs or alcohol, or otherwise driving in a dangerous manner.

In this case, the evidence does not establish beyond a reasonable doubt that the sergeant’s conduct was a gross deviation from the standard that would have been observed by a reasonable person in the same circumstances, or that the sergeant failed to perceive a substantial and unjustifiable risk of death. Therefore, OSI concluded that the evidence did not warrant criminal charges.

The OSI consistently recommends that the New York State Legislature pass a bill to require all police departments to equip officers with body-worn cameras (BWC). At the time of this incident, none of the responding MPD officers or members of SCSO were equipped with BWCs, which would have provided the public with greater transparency into the police investigation.

The OSI further recommends that SCSO hold officers of all police agencies to the same standards as civilians and conduct impartial investigations. The sergeant was operating an unregistered, uninspected vehicle with no front license plates when he struck Mr. Christy. The SCSO had the authority to ticket the sergeant and seize the vehicle immediately following the incident. However, no officer from MPD or SCSO thoroughly inspected the vehicle, made efforts to examine the vehicle’s event data recorder for any information it might contain from the collision, or requested assistance from an outside agency with officers trained in collision reconstruction. The SCSO let the sergeant drive the unregistered, uninspected vehicle away from the scene and did not issue the sergeant any tickets until after members of the SCSO learned that  Mr. Christy was in critical condition and not likely to survive.