By Mary Hladky
A 26-year-old woman has pleaded guilty to five charges stemming from a 2021 fatal hit-and-run crash along North Ocean Boulevard in Boca Raton that claimed the life of a New York federal judge.
Nastasia Snape was sentenced on Sept. 26 to four years in state prison followed by 26 years of probation by Palm Beach County Circuit Judge Caroline Shepherd for leaving the scene of a crash causing death, vehicular homicide, DUI causing serious bodily injury, leaving the scene of a crash causing injury and leaving the scene of an accident causing damage, court records state.
Snape, who lived in North Lauderdale at the time, was driving northbound on State Road A1A in a red Honda when she crossed the southbound lane and continued onto the sidewalk near the Spanish River Boulevard intersection, striking 75-year-old Sandra Feuerstein, according to a Boca Raton Police Department arrest report.
Feuerstein, who was nominated to the federal bench in 2003 by President George W. Bush and served on the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York, later died at Delray Medical Center.
Snape drove off at high speed, and hit a 6-year-old boy as he was crossing Ocean Boulevard in the crosswalk at Spanish River Boulevard. The boy suffered non-life-threatening injuries and was released from Delray Medical Center, Boca Raton police said.
Snape’s vehicle crashed at the intersection of Southeast 10th Street and northbound Federal Highway in Delray Beach.
A Delray Beach police officer at the scene said Snape at first appeared to be unconscious, but then began to convulse. Once inside an ambulance, she screamed and fought with medics, stating she was “Harry Potter.” Snape’s last name is the same as Severus Snape, a prominent character in the Harry Potter books.
Among her possessions were containers labeled “THC Cannabis” and a synthetic drug called “T salts,” which the arrest report stated is known to cause excited delirium. As a condition of probation, Snape must make a $6,000 donation within the first two years of probation to the Feuerstein scholarship fund at the Cardozo School of Law, and a $500 donation each month to the fund beginning in the third year of probation and ending when probation is completed.
Feuerstein was a graduate of Yeshiva University’s Cardozo law school.
Snape also must attend DUI school and have a substance abuse evaluation, with successful completion of any recommended treatment.
News of Feuerstein’s death deeply saddened members of New York’s legal community.
“Judge Feuerstein was a treasured member of our Eastern District bench,” District Court Executive Eugene Corcoran said in a statement at the time. “Her eccentric style and warm personality lit up the courtroom. She will be missed by her colleagues and litigants alike.”
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