ORANGE COUNTY, NY – Orange County District Attorney David M. Hoovler announced that Timothy Lempicki, 37, from Washingtonville, was sentenced on Monday, June 24, 2024, following his earlier guilty pleas in a case involving a fatal drug overdose. Lempicki received a prison sentence of two to six years for Manslaughter in the Second Degree and an additional three years followed by two years of post-release supervision for Criminal Sale of a Controlled Substance in the Third Degree.
The charges stem from an incident on July 16, 2022, in which Lempicki sold fentanyl in the Village of Washingtonville. The buyer, a man from the Town of New Windsor, fatally overdosed on the drug, which was determined through an autopsy to be due to fentanyl. During his guilty plea, Lempicki admitted he was aware of the substantial risk posed by the drug.
The case was investigated by the Village of Washingtonville Police Department and the Town of New Windsor Police Department, with assistance from the Orange County District Attorney’s Office and the Orange County Medical Examiner. This investigation led to Lempicki’s arrest and was presented before an Orange County Grand Jury.
DA Hoovler commended the local police departments for their diligent work in investigating this fatal overdose and noted that since 2014, his office has applied protocols similar to those used in homicide investigations to address fatal overdoses. He highlighted that while New York State law does not impose a strict liability standard for drug sales resulting in death, as seen in some other states like New Jersey, serious charges such as Manslaughter can still be pursued.