BOSTON, May 17, 2018—The Massachusetts Appeals Court today affirmed a West Roxbury driver’s conviction for causing a 2013 collision that left one of his passengers in a wheelchair and the driver of a second vehicle with catastrophic injuries that left him unable to walk, talk, or even feed himself until his death last year, Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel F. Conley said.

A Brighton Municipal Court jury convicted NIKOLAS PAPADOPOULOS, 23, of negligent operation of a motor vehicle following a three-day trial in 2015. Papadopoulos was behind the wheel of a 2003 Mazda Tribute and travelling westbound on the Arborway at about 2:00 pm on Sept. 16, 2013. The evidence showed that he was driving well over the 30 mph speed limit when he passed another vehicle on the right, crossed the center line in the area of Saint Joseph Street, struck a concrete barrier, and rolled over, crashing into a 2004 Ford F-150 pickup truck.

At the defendant’s request and over prosecutors’ objections, Judge Debra Shopteese excluded from the trial all testimony regarding the nature and extent of the victims’ injuries. The truck’s driver, then 33 and a father of three young children, suffered catastrophic injuries and relied upon others for even the most basic tasks until he died in February 2017. One of Papadopoulos’ passengers, then 14, suffered a traumatic brain injury after being ejected from the vehicle and now uses a wheelchair for mobility. The judge’s order also kept jurors from seeing the massive damage to both vehicles.

Today, the Appeals Court rejected Papadopoulos’ claim that the evidence from motorists, State Police reconstruction experts, and other trial witnesses was insufficient to prove negligence.

“The Commonwealth presented ample evidence from which the jury could find beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant operated his SUV negligently,” Justices Mark Green, Peter Sacks, and Sookyoung Shin wrote in the seven-page decision. “The jury could have found that the defendant tailgated [another driver’s] vehicle as they traveled on the one open lane on the overpass; that, once the roadway widened to two lanes, he signaled a lane change and then swerved into the right lane and accelerated to fifty-one miles per hour, tires squealing, in an attempt to pass her; and that then, whether purposefully or due to a loss of control, he swerved back into the left lane, up on two wheels, passing only five feet in front of [the other vehicle], hit and crossed over the median, rolled over, and then collided with the pickup truck. The jury could find that some of these acts alone, and certainly all of them in combination, constituted negligent operation.”

Conley praised the Appeals Court’s decision.

“The trial jury reached a verdict based on the facts, the evidence, and the law,” Conley said. “The Appeals Court’s decision reflects that. This devastating crash was not an accident – it was the result of a decision to ignore the rules of the road at a dangerously high speed, and we’re pleased to see the defendant’s conviction affirmed.”

Assistant District Attorney Montez Haywood of the DA’s Senior Trial Unit prosecuted the case at trial. Assistant District Attorney Cailin Campbell of the DA’s Appellate Division argued the case before the Appeals Court. Kara Hayes was the DA’s assigned victim-witness advocate.

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All defendants are presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.