The New Jersey cop who killed a fellow officer and a friend after partying at a Staten Island strip club had previously had his drivers license suspended for driving under the influence — and even had a sobriety lock on his car for four months, officials said.
Pedro Abad, a six year veteran of the Linden Police Department, refused to submit to any tests after he wrecked his car in Rahway, NJ in February of 2013, according to the state’s Motor Vehicle Commission records.
He was allowed to keep driving until he went before a judge in October of that year, who decided to suspend his license for seven months for the DUI, as well as a previous violation for talking on a cell phone in the summer of 2012.
His driving privileges were restored in May, 2014, but the judge ordered that Abad have an ignition interlock device installed in his car that he would have to blow into every time he got behind the wheel, and would prevent him from putting the car in gear unless he were sober.
The device was removed in September of that year, officials said.
Neighbors have told The Post that Abad, who lives with his parents at their Linden home, would regularly pull into the driveway and stumble out of his car, and even wrecked a BMW after getting his license back last year.
Linden police Capt. James Sarnicki said any discipline would be an internal personnel matter and would not be made public.
Meanwhile, the NYPD on Monday received a search warrant to test a blood sample taken from Abad shortly after last Friday’s fatal crash that will determine if he was drunk at the time. The results of that test are not yet known, police sources said.
Abad was behind the wheel when the men left Curves Gentlemen’s in Staten Island and drove the wrong way on the West Shore Expressway, plowing into an 18-wheeler.
The wreck flattened his tiny Honda Civic, killing two passengers: fellow cop Frank Viggiano and friend Joseph Rodriguez, both 28.
Abad and his partner, Officer Patrik Kudlac, 23, were both pulled from the wreckage alive but critically injured. Both men are fighting for their lives at Staten Island hospitals.
Each of the three cops had less than six years on the job, according to Linden police officials.
The trucker, Brandon Lee Getz, 33, tried to swerve his big rig out of the path of the wayward sedan, but smashed into it, authorities have said. He suffered only minor injuries.
Hours before the crash, Abad and his entourage were living it up at a Roselle, NJ, sports bar, where they devoured sushi and posted a photo of a round of shots Abad identified on his Instagram page as “Jack Daniel’s Fire.”
The men later drove to Staten Island and spent several hours at the strip club before embarking on their ill-fated ride home.
