A Long Island woman has been indicted for stealing a car, robbing a bank, and crashing head-on with a police vehicle when trying to escape — injuring one state trooper — officials announced Tuesday.
Nina Cahill, 42, is accused of stealing a 2007 Toyota Corolla from the valet stand at the Stony Brook University Hospital Emergency Room earlier this month, then “wreak[ing] havoc during a span of four days,” the Suffolk County Attorney’s Office said in a news release.
According to investigators, the Holtsville resident stole the vehicle on Sept. 4. Two days later, she drove it to a Chase bank in the neighboring hamlet of Selden where she allegedly stole approximately $500 from that bank after passing a note to the bank clerk “demanding all the money in the teller’s drawer.”
On Sept. 7, a Suffolk police officer saw Cahill driving the Toyota around 3:30 p.m. in Lake Ronkonkoma. The officer attempted to pull her over, but she refused and fled. A car chase that followed “had to be terminated for safety reasons,” prosecutors said.
Officers then spotted Cahill driving the stolen vehicle in Holbrook around 7:30 p.m. When troopers attempted to approach the vehicle, she sped off toward Exit 61 of the westbound Long Island Expressway.
At one point during the chase, authorities say Cahill exited the LIE, re-entered it from an exit ramp, began driving eastbound in the westbound lanes — ultimately colliding head-on with a highway patrol car.
After attempting to flee on foot, Cahill was arrested on the LIE in Ronkonkoma just after 8 p.m.
“The defendant allegedly compounded her already serious crimes by recklessly attempting to evade responsibility by fleeing from police.” District Attorney Raymond A. Tierney said in a statement. “In so doing, the defendant endangered passing motorists and ultimately injured a police officer.”
Tierney didn’t provide any details about the officer’s injuries or current condition.
Cahill was arraigned on multiple charges — including assault, reckless endangerment and grand larceny — on Tuesday. She has pleaded not guilty and is being held on $100,000 cash, $200,000 bond, or $1,000,000 partially secured bond.
She is due back in court on Oct. 15.
