According to Saugerties Police, a 911 caller reported that a vehicle had rolled over, trapping its driver inside, on Lauren Tice Road at approximately 12:27 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 10. When police arrived at the scene, a vehicle was reportedly laying on its roof in the middle of the road and operator Julie Kogut, 41, was unharmed and outside the vehicle.
Police said that Kogut had failed to negotiate a turn, lost control of her vehicle and drove into a ditch before her vehicle flipped. Responding officers determined that she was under the influence of drugs at the time of the incident, and she was therefore charged with a DWAI along with a ticket for failing to maintain her lane.
Saugerties Police were assisted at the scene by New York State Police, the Malden West Camp Fire Department and Diaz ambulance service. Investigators are still waiting on the return of blood samples to determine what drugs were in Kogut's system at the time of the incident, according to Police Chief Joe Sinagra, and additional charges are pending.
In March of 2017, Kogut was found in possession of multiple glass crack stems at Glasco Mini Park in Saugerties, according to the Saugerties Police Department, and charged with the misdemeanor of seventh-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance. When she was being received at Ulster County Jail preceding this incident, according to reporting by the Daily Freeman, she accrued additional charges after corrections officers found her in possession of crack cocaine and heroin during the booking process.
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