Law&Crime Sidebar - 'Possessed' TikToker Killed Mom, Daughters in Crosswalk: Cops

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Starting point is 00:00:35 that will keep you on the edge of your seat. Don't let your fears take hold of you as you dive into this addictive series. Love thrillers with a paranormal twist? The entire Oracle trilogy is available on Audible. Listen now on Audible. Today we're here to talk about a tragic, tragic accident of a Shakespearean proportion. A TikToker known for selling her custom wigs in Brooklyn, New York, and beyond, is accused of running a red light over the weekend, hitting a mother and her children who are simply crossing the street. Now three members of the same family are dead, and the fourth, a little boy is fighting for his life in a hospital. We are going to dig into these charges. We're going to dig into this case. And we are going to dig into the

Starting point is 00:01:20 suspect's background, which is full of one red flag after another. Welcome to Sidebar. Presented by Law and Crime, I'm Jesse Weber. This is just awful. There's no other way to say it. You have a young mother, Natasha Sada, who was walking with her three young children crossing the street in the crosswalk in Brooklyn, New York, when an Audi suddenly sped through a red light,

Starting point is 00:01:48 hits a Camry that was waiting to turn, and then slams into Natasha and her children at a high rate of speed. The impact caused the Camry to be pushed aside while the Audi continued forward and struck four pedestrians in the crosswalk, a mother and her three young children before overturning. The mother and two children were pronounced deceased. The third child was transported to Maimonides Medical Center and remains in critical condition. According to the New York Daily News, Natasha died at the scene. Her two daughters, Diana, who was seven or eight years old. There's different reporting on that, but clearly young daughter.

Starting point is 00:02:33 And her five-year-old, Deborah, they were rushed to a hospital, but they couldn't be safe. They died. And Tasha's four-year-old son had to be taken to a hospital, survived, but at last check, he is still in critical condition. Now, the Camry that had been waiting to turn had another family inside, believe it or not. And get this, according to the NYPD, it was a ride share. vehicle with a different mother and three children inside. Now, all of the people in that car, they are expected to recover, just minor injuries. But police say Miriam Yerimi was behind the wheel of the blue Audi A4, which flipped over during the crash. She was taken to Bellevue Hospital

Starting point is 00:03:13 for a psychiatric assessment because first responders on scene say that she made comments about being possessed and being followed by the CIA. Now, according to Fox 5 News, Uremy faces multiple charges, including three counts of second-degree manslaughter, three counts of criminally negligent homicide, and four counts of second-degree assault. There is a lot to talk about in this absolutely tragic case. So I want to bring on Perry Fallick, civil, personal injury attorney, partner at Morelli Law Firm. Perry, thanks so much for coming on. I appreciate you taking the time. This is an incredibly senseless tragedy. Do you see these kinds of cases often. I mean, obviously we talk about car crashes, but a family walking across the

Starting point is 00:04:00 street get hit like this. Hi, Jesse. Thanks for having me. And unfortunately, as a personal injury attorney who handles a lot of serious injury and catastrophic injury cases, I do see similar cases frequently, and it's very unfortunate and like you said, completely tragic. Talk to me about these charges. You know, I thought it was interesting that you have two different theories here, right, being charged or potentially charged with manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide, right? Two different theories for prosecutors. Sure. And obviously, I'm a civil attorney primarily, but looking at the criminal law, when you're talking about second degree manslaughter, even though it talks about acting recklessly in the second degree, there is an

Starting point is 00:04:44 element that you must be aware of what you are doing. And while it's not the same as first degree manslaughter, which requires intent, My thinking is when you're looking at this case and dealing with the potential psychological issues she's going to use as his defense, being aware could be something that's going to be fought over in the criminal case, which is why when they charge the criminally negligent homicide, which is a lesser standard, it's almost giving them a backup plan. It seems like that they would easily meet that in the circumstances of this case. Obviously, they're going to go for the second degree manslaughter because of the tragic

Starting point is 00:05:18 circumstances here but either way it seems like it's a pretty clear case for them my gosh what a story right look thank you for coming to us for our coverage on this one and also i want to thank and call out our sponsor and partner morgan and morgan for helping make this happen to now look this is a firm with over a thousand attorneys you know i've have so many because they win a lot in the past few months morgan and morgan secured a 9.3 million dollar verdict for a car crash victim in florida $5.6 million for another car accident and victim in Atlanta, and not to mention $1.8 million in Kentucky after insurance offered them a mere $5,000 in that case. And even if you think your case isn't worth millions of dollars, why not start a claim and fight for what you deserve?

Starting point is 00:05:58 Morgan and Morgan makes it so simple. You can start a claim from your phone in just eight clicks. So if you're injured, you can easily start a claim at for the people.com slash LC Sidebar. You want to talk about something that I think we can all talk about, particularly in your practice area? The human element, because the human element of this is unthinkable. You have this father, the husband of this family. Met with Mayor Eric Adams, reportedly the mayor said to him, there's not much one can say, but we're here for you.

Starting point is 00:06:31 Rabbi Yosef Ozeri, who presided over the memorial service to the family, said, yes, it's hard, yes, it's painful. There's nothing anyone can tell you. No one can understand the pain you're going through. It's an impossible thing, but God understands. And this man is currently not being identified, but, you know, Perry, what do you say to someone in his position? What do you say to these families that go through this loss, that go through this tragedy? And you have to imagine want some level of accountability.

Starting point is 00:07:02 So unfortunately, that is a conversation, like I mentioned at the top, that I do as a personal injury. attorney who handles wrongful death cases all the time and catastrophic cases like this. It is a conversation that we have to have with families. And one thing that's very timely in the civil realm is that the wrongful death statute in New York from a civil perspective is a law that was passed here in 1847. And there's something called the Grieving Families Act that personal injury attorneys and plaintiffs attorneys across the state have been fighting for for years now. And unfortunately, it's something that's got bipartisan support and has gone to.

Starting point is 00:07:37 to the governor's desks three years in a row, and she's vetoed it three years in a row. But it applies squarely to this case where the law in New York for wrongful death focuses almost entirely on the pecuniary loss of the individuals who passed away or the economic value of their lives. And that doesn't take into account the kids

Starting point is 00:07:57 who are too young to work, women who are stay-at-home moms. And that's something that other states have gotten up to date with. And New York is still lagging behind. And despite that bill sitting on the governor's desk, which would allow for claims in this situation for the grief and anguish and sorrow that a family member has to deal with in these circumstances,

Starting point is 00:08:17 right now New York does not allow a family member to be reimbursed for that. So when you ask about the conversations I have to have with family members, it's explaining to them that unfortunately, in these tragic circumstances where you lose young children or I don't know if the woman here was working or not, but if she's not working, the family's not allowed,

Starting point is 00:08:37 to be compensated for that in New York, and that's something that needs to be remedied and should be soon. I didn't know that. That is a that is a travesty. And hopefully it doesn't take a case like this for there to be that change because, you know, look, whatever, there's no money amount. There's no money amount that will, you know, fill that hole that's left in this man's life. But you have to imagine that there would be some sort of legal recourse, obviously, other than the criminal case, but some sort of significant legal recourse that could be brought against here. And by the way, it's, you know, you also wonder if it was to be successful what her financial situation is if this lawsuit was brought against her. But let's talk about

Starting point is 00:09:17 Ms. Yerimi because apparently she also faces charges connected to her driving with a suspended license. Yeah, question of how she was even on the road. In fact, according to a New York website that aggregates public information about traffic violations connected to license plates, Yerimi has racked up almost 100 traffic tickets in just the past three years. And as Yerimi showed off in a TikTok video, her license plate was memorable. Guys, I just got my new license plate. It's official. I'm officially a wig maker by law.

Starting point is 00:09:55 Ah! Oh my God. It's so good. wig maker hit me up oh my god just pull me over like get at me look at this wig maker if you see this license plate say hi yeah so in 2023 record show yoremi got a personalized license plate that said wig maker and then not long after she updated her plate for unknown reasons to say wig maker with an eight in place of the a now according to the website how's my driving and why that place had nearly 100 traffic violations connected to it between September 2023 and March 2025

Starting point is 00:10:36 when Euremi was arrested for this crash. Now the site shows that Euremi's wig maker, again with the eight, that license plate has been associated with 70 parking violations and 21 speeding tickets and she's been caught on camera running red lights at least five times. And over those three years, the website reports that Eurie was cited 18 times. for speeding in a school zone. Other violations included parking on the street during street cleaning, parking in front of a fire hydrant, failure to display a meter receipt. Since August of 2023, she has paid more than $9,000 in traffic fines and still owes more than $1,000.

Starting point is 00:11:19 Now, speed was likely a factor in this horrific crash as well, because per reporting from ABC7, police sources told the New York Daily News that it is believed she would, is driving around 50 miles per hour in a 25 mile per hour zone. And police have reportedly applied for a warrant to look at the data box in the blue Audi. Now, Perry, I made of questions here. First, let's start from the end and then we'll move back. The warrant for the data box in the blue Audi, what is what information could that tell

Starting point is 00:11:50 you? I mean, I think primarily what they're looking for is to confirmation of her speed and any other data that they show that she was violating the law. In New York, and that's something they're going to get as a matter of course. Anytime in New York State there's an auto accident that results in a fatality. I think the name currently is the collision investigation squad that does a full-scale, detailed investigation until the circumstances of this accident. They're going to take her blood and test her if she was on any drugs.

Starting point is 00:12:22 They're going to take measurements from the scene of the accident. They're going to analyze the speed of the vehicles at contact and the traveling rate. and where the vehicles ended up. So they're just looking to piece together a complete picture of this accident. And obviously that's gonna be used in this circumstance for both the criminal investigation and any potential civil investigation after the fact.

Starting point is 00:12:43 How is it possible that she was on the road? Okay, I'm gonna get into there's a change in the law happening. We'll talk about that or potential change the law. How is it possible under our current law that she can go behind the wheel of a car and drive? I don't understand. Well, so it's interesting, right?

Starting point is 00:12:59 there are a lot of these cases where we talk about how was she allowed to be on the road and that an individual's license should have been suspended here her license was in fact suspended so for once the government was on top of this and she had done enough violations and accumulated enough points that they did take her license away the question is what can the city or the government do after other than suspending her license and i'm not sure what else they're supposed to do and obviously she just disregarded that completely and got in the wheel of the car other than impounding all of her vehicles. And even then, there's no, there's no guarantee that you could keep a person off the road other than suspending her license. And I think that's kind of, you know,

Starting point is 00:13:39 going into what you're talking, what you were referencing in this bill that's coming up in committee in the state. Let's talk about that. So this crash has spurred state lawmakers to once again bring up the conversation of a bill that would put limitations on drivers who rack up infractions like the one she did. So the bill currently before New York State's Senate Transportation Committee would require the installation of what's called an intelligent speed assistance device in a person's car if they get six speed camera or red light camera tickets during a year or during a one year period. And an intelligent speed assistance device is also called a speed limiter and it won't allow the car to go more than five miles over the speed limit. So Perry, according to the New York Post, Virginia already passed something similar to this. Not sure if we're seeing other legislation in other states.

Starting point is 00:14:31 But Senator New York State Senator, Andrew Granada, said New York City did a pilot of 500 vehicles, and they found that every single vehicle was able to drive within the limit, and it didn't impede the delivery of city services. You think this is a good thing? You think this could save lives? I do, and this is the first I had heard about it in conjunction with this accident. And obviously, when talking about other than suspending a driver's license, this is something that could have been implemented in this case that, could have prevented this accident. And the 500 vehicles that were studied by New York City,

Starting point is 00:15:04 supposedly that was the largest ever pilot program in this type of circumstance. And the conclusion they found, I looked at the study, was that close to 30% of traffic fatalities involve excessive speed. So when you talk about something that could prevent unnecessary fatalities and accidents such as this, cutting a third or approximately a third of fatalities

Starting point is 00:15:27 out by installing these devices, I think is something that would be a great advancement. It could have saved their lives. I mean, I think that's a fair assessment considering what we're talking about here. Now, what would be the potential issues to putting this technology in cars? I mean, nothing's 100% right. You, I would imagine off the top of my head, could there be issues well? There might be times you have to speed up.

Starting point is 00:15:48 There might be times you have to slow down, you know, allowing it's the same conversation. I think when they talk about automated, you know, Teslas or cars that are self-driving. I don't know if it would be the same situation, but is there, are there potential issues with reducing the speed in this matter? I think that's a good point. I think there are always potential issues. And I hadn't thought about, you know, in a situation where maybe someone is trying to avoid an emergency and they're unable to speed up. So yes, that would be a circumstance. I think in these, anytime you're putting restrictions on people's ability to drive, I think there's some talk about infringing on people's liberties and people's freedoms.

Starting point is 00:16:27 But again, you're talking about doing this only to a very small segment of people who have reached this threshold of points violations within a year or two-year period. Obviously, this bill's still in committee. So there's going to be plenty of amendments and changes to that as it goes and debate over this. And it seems like what it's implied is that after a 24-month period, maybe if you don't have any further violations, something like this can be removed. So as you said, there's always going to be small potential issues. But when the study and the data says that you could prevent 30% of traffic fatalities, I think the benefits are too severe here to ignore. By the way, as we were researching Yerimi, we found something else.

Starting point is 00:17:10 We found several other interesting and disturbing details about her past. Let's get into it. So in 2024, Yerimi sued the NYPD and officer George Mastrocastis, who she claimed raped her repeatedly for years from the time she was 14 years old. According to the civil complaint, Eremie claims that Master Kostas and his partner approached her on the street in 2006, putting her in handcuffs and searching her without probable cause. The complaint reads approximately two weeks later,

Starting point is 00:17:39 respondent, Master Kostas, approached the claimant while on duty and in his patrol car and requested her phone number, which she gave to him. On her about August of 2006, respondent Master Kostis approached claimant again while on duty and in his patrol car directing her to get inside. Respondent while on duty drove to another location and began kissing the claimant. Approximately one week later on a Friday evening, respondent Mastro Costas contacted claimant at her home. He told her to meet him outside where he picked her up in his patrol car while on duty and drove her to an empty parking lot at East Second and Lawrence Avenue in Brooklyn next to the 70th precinct. He then proceeded

Starting point is 00:18:15 to engage in intercourse with the claimant, a 14-year-old girl raping her. Now, Uremy claims that this continued for three years with the officer allegedly taking her to the same location every time. She said she reported the conduct to the NYPD in 2010 and did interviews with the Internal Affairs Bureau. But she says no actions were taken against Master Kostas, who then allegedly started harassing Yeremi and her family. Now, the NYPD reportedly settled the lawsuit for $2 million. dollars. Uremy posted on Instagram in December of 2024. I want to share some deeply personal news with you all. After years of fighting, I have won my lawsuit against the NYPD for the abuse I endured as a child. This victory is not just for me. It's for every survivor who has felt

Starting point is 00:19:01 silenced or forgotten. The trauma I experienced shaped so much of who I am today, but it has given me the strength to keep going, to keep speaking out, to keep fighting for justice. And that is not the only time that Uremy posted about her interaction with police. No, no, no, no, no. In a TikTok video posted back in October, Uremy is seen in her bedroom surrounded by NYPD officers who eventually pull her from her bed. The New York Daily News reports that Uremy was involuntarily committed to a psych ward following a welfare check. And she and her attorney have filed court documents indicating they plan to sue the NYPD and Coney Island Hospital for five.

Starting point is 00:19:40 million alleging false imprisonment, medical malpractice, negligence, deprivation of civil rights, Perry, a lot of things to talk about here. First, let's just start with that suit. You think there's anything to that suit at all? It's hard to say. I don't know enough facts about the underlying circumstances of her. Obviously, she posted that video. Generally, police don't come into your home and commit you without some type of good cause and a warrant and some justification for doing so. So she would have to be able to overcome all of that in any lawsuit. I think it would be an uphill battle. Obviously, after everything that just occurred with this tragic accident,

Starting point is 00:20:16 she's not exactly a sympathetic plaintiff or she has other things to worry about right now. I'd be curious to see if that suit ever gets filed or ever really continues. Not saying there's nothing there, but I need to see more facts to know. Now, I want to get into the mental health aspect of this because obviously, let's say, you know, there really was a situation here of sexual assault that obviously can have effect on somebody, both physically and mentally and emotionally. But, you know, you talk about this incident with police removing her. Well, let me also add this. Most recently, on March 23rd, this was just days before the crash. Uremi posted a photo and video of what she says is a camera

Starting point is 00:20:57 hidden in a vent in the bathroom of her apartment. And she wrote, for months, I said I was being watched. I said something was off. I said I didn't feel safe. And I was made to feel crazy for it. Tonight at 11.20 p.m. I found a hidden camera inside the vent. I have photo and video proof. It's been confirmed. I followed the report. So for anyone who doubted me, question me, whispered about me, or stood by silently while I broke down trying to explain what I felt. I wasn't wrong. I wasn't unstable. I wasn't paranoid. Now, Perry, I don't know the circumstances of this camera. What I do know is what's being reported about what she said at the scene of this accident, this crash. Her prior history with being removed. This. activity and i know that uh she had this arraignment in brooklyn criminal court that's being that's pending because she's undergoing a psychiatric evaluation so talk to me about what mental health what aspect that might have in this case is and it doesn't take us to be doctors to realize there could be a connection between the trauma she experienced as a kid um and any psychological issues she may be having now obviously i from a purely legal

Starting point is 00:22:07 perspective, the NYPD doesn't generally pay $2 million settlements to people who are filing frivolous lawsuit. So that would lead me to believe, again, without knowing all of the facts of the underlying case, that there was something there in that initial lawsuit. And she did experience some type of trauma that led them to settle that case. So to say as a young girl to experience that trauma that someone is an adult that's experiencing psychological issues, doesn't take much to connect those dots. On the other hand, it cuts both ways. She's posting all of the these things saying she doesn't have psychological issue. She's not crazy that she found this camera. I also saw that she had posted about buying a new custom Porsche a couple weeks before this

Starting point is 00:22:47 accident. So all of that is going to be taken into account when they're evaluating her psychological status. Obviously, they're doing a full evaluation by doctors. Obviously, she made those comments at the scene of the accident about being possessed. So there's facts on both sides here, but that all has to be evaluated and determining whether she is mentally fit. We'll see where that goes, that legal case, but our hearts, our prayers are with that family, with that husband, with that widower, with that father. It is unthinkable. It is really unthinkable. Perry Fallick, thank you so much for taking the time to break it down for us, and it was good seeing you. Thank you. You too. All right, everybody, that's all we have for you right now here on Sidebar. Thank you so much for joining us. And as always,

Starting point is 00:23:34 please subscribe on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, wherever you should get your podcasts. I'm Jesse Weber. I'll speak to you next time. Thank you.

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Law&Crime Sidebar - 'Possessed' TikToker Killed Mom, Daughters in Crosswalk: Cops

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