By Howard Koplowitz
The executive director of Long Island Jewish Medical Center, who admitted to being addicted to crack while taking the stand in the drunken driving trial of a Nassau woman, has stepped down from the position and is on a leave of absence from the hospital, an LIJ spokesman said Tuesday.
John Steel, who was granted immunity by Nassau County prosecutors in the case against Northport, L.I., resident Donna Powell, said he left a bar with the woman, drove to buy crack with her and then drove to a remote area to smoke the drug, according to a spokesman for the Nassau County district attorney’s office.
Steel is “focusing on his recovery,” said LIJ spokesman Brian Mulligan. “He’s stepped down as executive director. I think he recognizes that he needs to recover and I think he’s concentrating on that.”
Mulligan, who said Steel’s resignation as executive director was Steel’s decision, said Steel is still an employee at LIJ, but he is being replaced as executive director by Chantal Weinhold, executive director at adjacent Schneider Children’s Hospital.
Mulligan said Steel requested and was granted a leave of absence “several weeks ago,” but he could not discuss his status in any more detail because it is a personnel issue.
Powell claimed she sped off drunk from the remote area to fend off an attempted sexual assault by Steel when she was arrested by Nassau police for driving while intoxicated, the paper said.
The Northport woman did not tell police who arrested her that Steel tried to sexually assault her.
Nassau prosecutors did not believe her story because “it did not match the evidence in the case and was not supported by any independent evidence,” the DA’s spokesman said. “Her allegation was supported only by her word and her testimony.”
Steel testified in the case last Thursday and Powell was acquitted of the drunk driving charges Friday by Nassau County Judge George Peck, the Nassau district attorney spokesman said.
Powell’s lawyer used an unconventional defense under New York law that says a person is justified in committing a crime if he or she is avoiding harm that is worse than what is caused by carrying out the crime, Newsday said.
The 48-year-old woman was found guilty of driving the wrong way on a one-way street, however, the paper said. The charge is a traffic infraction and not subject to a jail term.
Reach reporter Howard Koplowitz by e-mail at hkoplowitz@cnglocal.com or by phone at 718-229-0300, Ext. 173.
