MONTICELLO – Tuesday June 2 will mark the one-year anniversary since a retired town justice who was driving a car struck and killed two teenagers as they walked along Glen Wild Road in Rock Hill.
Isaac Kantrowitz, 86, of Woodridge, was driving a 2018 Hyundai Elantra about 3:15 p.m. on that Sunday last year when he struck the two teens, who were pronounced dead at the scene, .They were identified as Justin Finkel, 14, and Devin Zeininger, 16, both of the town of Thompson.
Kantrowitz, a retired town of Fallsburg judge, had been involved in three car accidents, including one that resulted in an injury, over the prior three years. His driver’s license was suspended after the latest incident, pending a Department of Motor Vehicles hearing. The case has sparked periodic protests in the county as the investigation has dragged on.
Acting Sullivan County District Attorney Meagan Galligan, who inherited this case and others when she was sworn in on January 1 of this year, said that the investigation is moving forward.
“We have reviewed the case extensively, including the state police investigation, and I want to bring the families closure.” Galligan said she has met with immediate family of the victims and made them aware of how the case is proceeding.
When asked to confirm rumors that she had impaneled a grand jury to hear the case in March, Galligan said, “Due to the secrecy of grand jury proceedings, I cannot discuss what, if anything, that session of the grand jury heard or was scheduled to hear.”
Galligan said that courts in the state were ordered closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic which halted all grand jury proceedings.
The DA said that she wrote to District Administrative Judge Thomas Breslin and asked if she could impanel two grand juries at the same time in Sullivan County when the courts reopen. “We are looking to move this case along and several others,” said Galligan.
She said that her heart goes out to the families of the two boys. “This is a heartbreaking case. I can’t begin to imagine what it feels like to suffer such a tragic loss of a child,” she said.
