A Brooklyn man who was shown in a popular TikTok dash cam video of a crash on a busy Queens highway was charged with insurance fraud, staging a motor vehicle accident, reckless endangerment and other crimes, prosecutors announced on Friday.
The man, Maikel Martinez, 28, was with three other people in October when their silver Honda appeared to cut off another driver on the Belt Parkway, a major highway that runs through southern Brooklyn and southern Queens. The other driver, Ashpia Natasha, stopped her car to avoid a crash, but then the vehicle that Mr. Martinez was in backed into her. She said it caused $8,300 in damages to her vehicle.
“It all happened so fast,” Ms. Natasha, 31, told The New York Times last month, adding that she thought: “Maybe they’re here to hurt me.”
Melinda Katz, the Queens district attorney, said in a statement, “Countless lives were jeopardized due to this incredibly reckless conduct.” She added that the investigation into the crash was ongoing. It is a felony in New York to stage a car crash for insurance purposes.
Mr. Martinez, who was arrested on Thursday after returning to New York from Ecuador, could serve up to seven years in prison if convicted. He was also charged with criminal mischief and conspiracy.
Queens Defenders, a public defenders group that is representing Mr. Martinez, declined to comment on the charges.
Dash cams on Ms. Natasha’s car captured the crash, and she uploaded the footage to TikTok, where it has since been viewed more than 74 million times.
Ms. Natasha said she felt confused during the incident. “I knew something sketchy was going on,” she said, “but I genuinely thought it was an accident.”
The footage captured a silver Honda as it abruptly pulled in front of Ms. Natasha’s vehicle. It then reversed into her stopped car. People in the Honda then appeared to place a plastic tarp across the vehicle’s rear window from the inside, obstructing Ms. Natasha’s view of the interior. Prosecutors said the Honda’s occupants then changed their seats before getting out.
Four people emerged from the Honda, including Mr. Martinez and an unidentified woman from the driver’s side who Mr. Martinez said was his wife, according to prosecutors. The other two people, a woman and a man, have yet to be identified by prosecutors. All four seemed to be distressed as they examined the damage to both vehicles, according to the dash cam footage, and they appeared to record videos and take photos.
Ms. Natasha told The Times in October that the group had asked for her insurance information, which she provided. On Friday, she said it wasn’t until she got home and reviewed the dash cam footage that she “realized it was potential insurance fraud and I just felt really violated at that point.”
The dash cam footage also captured a red Kia Sport following Ms. Natasha’s car. After the crash, the car stopped in front of the Honda and the unidentified man from inside got into the Kia and left.
“I’m just really happy that they were able to make an arrest,” Ms. Natasha said, adding that she had “confidence that the police will be able to make an arrest for everyone that was involved.”
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