José Santos, the jockey who rode Funny Cide to victory in the 2003 Kentucky Derby, has hired two lawyers to tell a Long Island judge that he’s so short on funds that his daughter should get a court-appointed attorney to defend her in a DWI fatality.
Sophia Santos, 20, was driving a Mercedes-Benz when she plowed into Virginia Urgo, a 62-year-old grandmother, on Nov. 11 in Levittown. Attorney James Drucker told the Mineola court yesterday that her famous dad’s “only income is disability.”
The judge agreed to appoint a Legal Aid lawyer but vowed to check the father’s claim.
The daughter is charged with DWI and vehicular manslaughter.
Urgo’s grieving husband, John, scoffed at the Santos’ cries of poverty, pointing out that she was “driving a 2006 Mercedes.”