FDNY EMT from Hawthorne indicted in Greenburgh hit & run death
By Rebecca Baker
The Journal News • August 28, 2008

WHITE PLAINS - A Hawthorne man charged with the hit-and-run death of an Elmsford father told Greenburgh police that he believed he hit a pothole that night, authorities say.

The driver, Scott Desimone, an emergency medical technician with the New York City Fire Department, pleaded not guilty in state Supreme Court in White Plains today in the death of Manuel Guaman Saca, 51.

Saca, a father of five, was walking to his job at a newspaper distribution center off Hunter Lane, family members said. Desimone, 35, is accused of hitting Saca with a rental car in the early hours of March 1 along Saw Mill River Road in Greenburgh.

He was indicted on felony charges of leaving the scene of a fatal accident and falsifying business records, and a misdemeanor charge of insurance fraud.

Police said he lied to Enterprise Rent-a-Car and to his insurance company about the damage to his rental car, a 2008 Mazda Tribute.

According to court papers handed up at the indictment, Desimone told police he had two drinks at Pete's Saloon in Elmsford the night of Feb. 29 - hours before Saca was killed.

"When asked if he hit anything on his way home, he stated that he remembers hitting what he thought to be a pot hole on Saw Mill River Road," the papers said.

He told Greenburgh detectives that being an EMT was all that he lived for and, at one point, they said, he excused himself and sat in the back corner of the interview room and started to cry. Desimone told them he took a lot of medication for headaches and pain, according to the court papers.

Police identified Desimone as a suspect early on after investigators found part of a 2008 Mazda Tribute fender at the scene and later discovered the car at an auto body shop about a mile south of where Saca was killed.

Police waited more than three months for forensic test results to solidify their case.

Desimone is the son of Larry Desimone, Greenburgh's town fire marshal. His ex-wife, Dina Desimone, is a Greenburgh police officer.

He is free on $7,500 bail.