Full Notification

MEDIA RELEASE – OCTOBER 4, 2011
MAN CHARGED WITH VEHICULAR HOMICIDE AFTER DWI CRASH
Hunterdon County Prosecutor Anthony P. Kearns, III announced the arrest of one individual after a joint investigation by the HCPO Fatal Accident Collision Team and the New Jersey State Police. Ryan Ricketts, age 32, of Tinton Falls, was charged today with Vehicular Homicide for a crash that occurred in Readington Township on June 3, 2011, at 3:35 am.
On that morning, Mr. Ricketts was driving a red 2011 Ford Escape on Interstate 78 eastbound near milepost 23 at a high rate of speed. Ricketts’s Ford struck a 2006 Buick Rainier operated by 72 year old Adolf Smith.
According to Prosecutor Kearns, “After being rear-ended, Mr. Smith’s Buick left the roadway, traveled up an embankment where it struck a tree and overturned. Mr. Smith was pronounced dead at the scene. New Jersey State Troopers on scene arrested Ricketts for Driving While Intoxicated.”
The Honorable Stephen B. Rubin, J.S.C. set bail on Ricketts at $10,000. He turned himself in at the Prosecutor’s Office in Flemington today. A first court appearance has been set for October 20, 2011 in Hunterdon County Superior Court.
The filing of a criminal complaint is merely a step in the criminal justice process. The defendant is presumed innocent until the matter is resolved in a court of law.
Questions can be submitted to the Prosecutor via fax to 908-806-4618.