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Luke G. Stein, 18, of Cresskill, “helped carry one of the stretchers away from the wreck” off southbound Route 9W in Alpine earlier this month, Samuel L. Davis told reporters during a news conference at his Teaneck office on Thursday, Oct. 27.
It was perhaps one of the “most twisted and cynical” things that he’d ever heard and “utterly sickening” to the victims and their loved ones, the attorney said.
"This firesetter went back to the scene of the fire to help put it out,” said Davis, who filed a lawsuit on behalf of four of the victims and their families.
The suit names Stein, as well as the owners of an Alpine home where a party sparked the assault and a Tenafly liquor store that allegedly sold booze for the bash. Also targeted are a group of as-yet unidentified "John Doe" companions of Stein’s who Davis said were involved in the Oct. 10 crash.
All of the pursued teens were severely injured when an SUV driven by victim Mikkel Leutgeb ended up “wrapped around a tree” near the entrance to the Montammy Golf Club, Davis said.
SEE: Teens Critically Injured In Road-Rage Crash On Route 9W
Leutgeb suffered a fractured lumbar, a broken leg and facial damage, while Ariana Grant had a severely lacerated scalp, broken ribs, pierced lungs, fractured vertebrae in her neck and spine and a broken arm and ankle, according to their families.
Jonathan Battaglia spent his 18th birthday recovering in the hospital from punctured lungs, a broken leg, several fractures, a gash in his head and brain hemorrhaging, while Kevin Trejos suffered two compound lumbar fractures, a bruised lung, a respiratory infection and cuts on his hip.
A fifth victim, Lital Aburus, is still hospitalized. She "underwent a 7-hour surgery on her shattered arm, in which rods and pins are now permanently holding together her bones," the Tenafly High School Home School Association wrote.
Lital also "suffered numerous lacerations requiring countless stitches on her face and hands, broken bones in her back, bruised lungs, and broken jaw, eye socket, and teeth and palate."
Detectives from Bergen County Prosecutor Mark Musella's Fatal Accident Investigations Unit secured an arrest warrant for Stein after a brief preliminary investigation. They then went to Colorado, where he attends the state university, to serve it.
Stein was seized and eventually returned to New Jersey, where a judge in Hackensack allowed his release – with conditions – pending trial on five counts of aggravated assault and impersonating a law enforcement officer.
SEE: Driver Seized In Colorado In Route 9W Crash That Critically Injured Bergen County Teens
The victims’ loved ones have questioned why Stein is the only person charged so far but not any of a dozen or so companions who “formed a very intimidating and threatening gang,” Davis said Thursday.
Any of those friends can legally refuse to cooperate in the ongoing criminal investigation, he noted.
In the civil case, however, Davis can not only subpoena them to testify: If necessary, he can get a court order compelling them to do so if they refuse, he said.
Although many witnesses have cooperated, there are still occupants of the vehicles, as well as partygoers, who haven’t yet spoken up, said Davis, who was joined by some of the injured teens and their families.
That hopefully will change, he said, thanks to the joint suit he filed Thursday in Superior Court in Hackensack on behalf of all but Leutgeb and his family.
The lawsuit, a copy of which was obtained by Daily Voice, seeks unspecified “compensatory damages, damages for mental anguish and emotional distress, punitive damages, interests and costs of the suit and such other and further relief as the court deems proper.”
It doesn't specify any figures.
The chain of events began with a late-night birthday party at the Schaffer Road home of Charles and Rosemary Kim in Alpine.
The theme, Davis said, was “European nightclub,” complete with a deejay, disco ball and red Solo cups that “were soon to be filled with alcoholic beverages.”
Outside the home were anywhere from 20 to 25 vehicles “all driven by teenagers who should not have been drinking and should not have been permitted to get back in their cars after a drinking party," Davis said.
Inside the house was vodka, beer and fireballs, as well as pot being smoked – all of which “lit the fuse of this disaster,” he said.
The Kims were upstairs and didn’t come down at any point, said Davis, a partner in the law firm of Davis, Saperstein & Salomon.
In addition to not supervising the affair, the couple provided “zero security” for the estimated 50 to 70 mostly underage guests, he said.
There was also “no one to make sure these teenage drivers had their keys taken from them,” the attorney noted.
“Had any of those ingredients been removed from this mix, this catastrophe might not have happened and we would not be here,” he said.
Davis described the victims as “kind, genteel, considerate people with lots of friends and no axes to grind. They just wanted to have a good time at their friend's birthday party."
At some point, he said, a fight broke out. Someone threw a beer can that hit another teen in the head.
Either the teenager who was hit or one of his "comrades" then threw a series of punches at the person responsible, knocking him down, Davis said.
When that “young inebriated person” got back up, he called his own friends.
"He wanted to have revenge for having been humiliated,” Davis explained.
Soon after, 12 young men “entered so aggressively” that his clients “knew immediately that they needed to leave the party because it didn't feel comfortable anymore,” the attorney said. “Something bad was going to happen.”
There were rumors -- though not substantiated -- that one of the new visitors had a gun, he added.
What followed wasn’t a confrontation between two gangs, Davis said. “This was a lynch mob,” he said.
An attorney for Stein couldn’t immediately be reached for comment on this story. The same for the Kims.
Stein had been out drinking with friends before they all rushed to the Kims' home, Davis said, adding that there was “plenty of beer muscle and rage in them” when they arrived.
They didn’t know who was responsible for punching their pal, Davis said. However, they did notice Mikkel Leutgeb and his friends leaving in a rush and figured it was one of them, he said.
The victims were “totally uninvolved in any kind of fracas at all,” Davis insisted. Rather, they were “singled out for misguided and misdirected violence” because they “had the good sense to leave the party," he said.
A doorbell camera picked up audio “indicating a chase was about to happen,” Davis said. “You can hear young people saying, ‘Go! Go!’ “
He called it “chilling.”
Stein, an 18-year-old college freshman whose stepfather is a law enforcement veteran, was driving a 2021 Jeep Grand Cherokee, the attorney said. Behind him was a 2022 Porsche Macan and a Honda Fit, both driven by friends of his, he said.
The Honda Pilot driven by Mikkel Leutgeb stopped for a red light on southbound Route 9W at Hillside Avenue, Davis said.
There, Stein either “intentionally or accidentally or negligently or recklessly” bumped the back of the Pilot, the lawyer said.
“That's when the facts of this case start to get sinister and bizarre,” he said.
Stein, who’s a volunteer firefighter in Alpine and Demarest, activated a blue and white emergency light on his dashboard “not for a legal purpose, which would be to come to the aid of people or to rescue people as he was sworn to do,” Davis said.
Instead, he said, Stein took “a symbol of safety” and “turned it into a weapon.”
The occupants of the Pilot initially believed it was a police officer trying to pull them over, Davis said. Before Mikkel could come to a stop, however, the Jeep rear-ended his vehicle a second time, the attorney said.
Afraid that this was actually someone trying to do harm to him and his friends, Mikkel hit the gas.
The vehicles raced at more than 100 miles an hour south on dark and winding Route 9W, which Davis said “is known to be one of the most dangerous passageways in Bergen County.”
Roughly a half-mile later, Mikkel lost control of the Honda while trying to turn onto Montammy Drive. The SUV crashed into the woods, trapping three of the five occupants.
Responding police officers summoned area firefighters and ambulances.
Stein was returning to the East Madison Avenue home in Cresskill of his mother, Wendy Stein, and stepfather Manuel "Manny" Alfonso, a career law enforcement officer with federal and state experience, when the call came in, authorities said.
He returned to the scene in a different vehicle a short time later, a complaint on file in Superior Court in Hackensack alleges.
It was an action that Davis said he, the victims and their loved ones still “can’t get our arms around.”
Legal liability for what happened that night is shared among many, Davis said Thursday.
That includes the homeowners, who he insisted “should have known what was going on,” and the owners of a liquor store in nearby Tenafly, who Davis said “provided alcohol to at least one person which would up at the party and was consumed by the attendees.”
The ultimate responsibility, he said, rests with Stein, the drivers of the other two cars that initially pursued the victims with “violent aggression” and the remaining occupants of all three vehicles.
“We still do not have a grasp on why there was such irrational behavior and misdirected violence by this gang who had never met them before and just jumped to a conclusion that this group was responsible for a friend getting punched after he threw a can of beer,” Davis said.
The victims’ families are confident that the prosecutor’s investigation will provide some answers. But that’s only the beginning, Davis said.
In addition to eventually obtaining the criminal case files, Davis said his office “will take the depositions of many people” and obtain records from all of the agencies involved as the civil suit proceeds.
He's also seeking emails and texts from the Kim home and wherever Stein “and his gang” had been drinking.
Through Davis, the victim’s parents and a guardian thanked those who’ve gone to great lengths to support them -- some in meal chains, others through prayer and rallies.
Some psychologists and physical therapists in the community have also donated their time and services, he said.
And although “many people have cooperated” in the criminal investigation, there are still those out there whose assistance is important. They can help present a clearer picture through photos taken on their cellphones, as well as texts and social media posts from that night – not to mention eyewitness accounts, Davis said.
The attorney urged “those people who care about the welfare of these kids who were so badly hurt, and who care about their families and the community” to identify anyone and everyone “who saw what happened before, during and after the party.”
He also added a warning: Anyone who would try to impede those people should think again.
“We will not tolerate anybody trying to silence our clients or to silence any other witnesses to come forward,” the attorney said.
Davis asked that anyone with information in the case contact his office through tips@dsslaw.com or by calling (201) 444-4444.
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