SON OF MADOFF VICTIM IS HIT-AND-DRIVER: BICYCLE DELIVERYMAN IS HIS ACCIDENT VICTIM
From: New York attorney Gary E. Rosenberg (personal injury and accident attorney and lawyer; serving Brooklyn Queens Bronx; Brooklyn Injury Lawyer)
The drunk son of one Bernie Madoff's original investors was busted for smashing into a food deliveryman on a bicycle - and then trying to speed off on a Midtown street. The arrest took place on Saturday, January 29, 2011.
Clark Gettinger, 40, was behind the wheel of a 2001 Lexus sedan heading north on Eighth Ave. near W. 47th St. when he hit the bicyclist from behind at 10:15 p.m. Friday, January 28, 2011, police said.
The deliveryman, Ricardo Gonzalez, toppled from his bike and was then struck by a silver BMW hat was behind the Lexus, police said.
The Lexus rammed into the 28-year-old bike rider near 47th Street with an impact so violent that the cyclist's head knocked out the windshield on the passenger side. Gonzalez was bleeding heavily from the head as he lay unconscious in the street but Gettinger never slowed down, witnesses told police.
"I saw he had a lot of blood," said Paulo Gadoy, who works at a restaurant across the street.
Meanwhile, Gettinger continued up Eighth Avenue. When he got stuck in traffic at 50th Street, cops were able to surround the vehicle. Gettinger tried to flee on foot but was soon captured and placed under arrest. He's been charged with DWI, vehicular assault and leaving the scene of an accident. Gettinger, who lives just blocks from the accident scene, was awaiting arraignment at Manhattan Criminal Court Saturday afternoon.
Gettinger is the son of the late Robert Gettinger, an investor who lost millions in Bernie Madoff's Ponzi scheme.
Gonzalez, who lives in Inwood, was listed in critical condition at Bellevue Hospital.
"He was by the back tires under the gas tank," said witness Blake Kirschbaum, 29, a bouncer at a nearby bar. "He didn't look too well. He wasn't moving," he added.
Firefighters from Engine 54, which is only half a block away, came down the street to try to save the man.
"It took 15 minutes to get him out from under the car," Kirschbaum said.
Robert Gettinger, who died in July 2009, was one of Madoff's first investors, initially entrusting the con man with money in 1973.
When the notorious Ponzi scheme was exposed in late 2008, the elder Gettinger told the Wall Street Journal that he and Madoff had grown close and even attended bar mitzvahs for each other's sons.
Gettinger said Madoff misled him to believe that his investment had grown to $10 million, with a $3 million trust fund for Clark and his brother Scott.
