Camden Woman Gets Over A Decade In Jail For Bensalem Crash
by Alex Lloyd Gross
Patricia Cortez, of Camden New Jersey will be spending the next 12 to 24 years i9n state prison for driving drunk and getting into a accident in Bensalem in April of 2020. This crash resulted in the deaths of three people. She pleased guilty yesterday, January 25, 2021 before judge Theodore Frisch Jr. This accident happened on April 1 2020 when Cortez drove south in the northbound lanes and struck another car head on just south of Woodhaven Road.
Ryan Connell, 28, Leanne Popson, 35, both of the Levittown area, and Lucas Gelatko, 36, of Yardley. All three victims had children. At Monday’s sentencing, Gelatko’s mother described her son as a “funny, playful person who is dead because a woman decided to drive when she had been drinking.” Connell’s father told the court, “My wife and I lost our son who was a father of three small children. They will never get that back. The hope and take here will be of the seriousness of drinking and driving and what could be the outcome when making the wrong decision.” And Popson’s father added in his impact statement, “I am devastated. I miss my daughter and only child more and more every day.”
When Cortez was interviewed at the scene by state troopers, they could smell alcohol on her breath. When asked how much alcohol she drank, Cortez answered “a lot” .
During the investigation, state police reviewed home surveillance footage that showed Cortez driving southbound in the northbound lanes on I-95. Cortez was treated at the hospital and she consented to a blood draw, which found that her blood-alcohol content was 0.156 percent. The tests also found that she had marijuana in her system.