Residential real estate broker Kinga Tabares, who allegedly drove off with a taxicab while intoxicated after a night out in the Meatpacking District, rejected a plea deal from prosecutors in court Wednesday.
Manhattan prosecutors offered to let the 27-year-old former Douglas Elliman agent, who now works for the Nassimi Group, plead guilty to felony driving while intoxicated in exchange for six months in jail and five years of probation.
But Tabares turned down the plea bargain, according to the New York Post, and is due back in court April 11 on charges of grand larceny, DWI and operating a motor vehicle while impaired.
Tabares was arrested in the early morning of Nov. 13 after she allegedly refused to pay her fare for a cab ride from Washington and Little West 12th streets in the Meatpacking District.
Her driver, Ronald Desir, consequently stopped at a police station on East 21st Street to report Tabares, who Desir later said “was so drunk, she didn’t know where she was going.”
Tabares then allegedly got into the driver’s seat of the cab and drove off with the vehicle while Desir was inside the police station. When the cops finally caught up with her in Chelsea, she was reportedly vomiting out of the driver’s side window.
“It’s unfortunate in a case where someone is accused of abusing alcohol that the District Attorney’s office is pushing for jail when we have a lot of different treatment options,” Lance Fletcher, Tabares’ lawyer, said. [NYP] – Rey Mashayekhi