NEW YORK — It was just a short walk from Maria Herrera's Brooklyn apartment to her mother's, in the shadow of the Gowanus Expressway and two blocks from the East River. On a humid night last August, the pregnant 24-year-old, a month from giving birth, headed there with her 4-year-old son and teenage sister.

Joseph Gray, a 15-year veteran of the New York City Police Department, was driving his family minivan down Third Avenue after a day-long drinking binge with friends on the force. The roving party began in the 72nd precinct parking lot after Gray wrapped up his nightshift at 8 a.m. and ended at a local strip club known for its cheap lap dances.

Neither Herrera nor Gray made it to their intended destination. As Herrera and her family stepped into the crosswalk spanning Third Avenue, Gray's Ford Windstar struck them, throwing the pregnant woman and her sister to the pavement and pinning Herrera's son Andy underneath the vehicle.

Gray hadn't slept for at least 24 hours. His blood alcohol level four hours later was 0.16, well beyond the legal limit of 0.10.

Dilcia Pena

Gray's airbag deployed as he screeched to a stop, and he leapt from his car. Screaming for someone to call 911, he remained at the accident scene as officers began to arrive from his own precinct, the 72nd. A crowd of neighborhood residents gathered, watching silently as the three limp bodies were placed into ambulances while Captain Bryan White, a longtime friend of Gray's, took him into the back of his patrol car and spoke to him from the front seat. "Just between me and you, Joe," he said, "I have to know if you've been drinking."

Gray's answer to that question will be a central issue in his manslaughter trial, which started Wednesday in state Supreme Court in Brooklyn with jury selection. Gray, 41, could get 15 years in prison if convicted of all counts relating to the accident. Since his arrest he has been living at home in Staten Island after posting $250,000 bail.

"I am glad it is someone like you, Bryan," Gray told White that night in a conversation that his lawyer unsuccessfully tried to exclude from evidence, but that Gray has never denied. "I know I will get a fair shake. I have got to admit I was drinking, but it was earlier. I was on my way to work and they darted in front of me."

Maria Herrera

While Gray was allegedly making his squad car confessional Herrera and her sister, Dilcia Pena, were pronounced dead at nearby Lutheran Medical Center. Andy Herrera died a short time later. Ricardo Nicanor was delivered by Cesarean section from his dead mother that evening. But he died too, in his father's arms at 10:30 a.m. the next day.

The family that Victor Herrera, a carpenter from Guatemala, had started when he married Maria Pena, who had moved with her mother and siblings from the Dominican Republic in 1993, was no more.

Gray was initially charged with three manslaughter and vehicular manslaughter counts — along with two counts of driving under the influence and an assortment of lesser traffic charges — but a fourth manslaughter charge was added Dec. 6, 2001, after a grand jury decided that Ricardo could also be considered a living person.

The additional charge won't add any jail time if Gray is convicted — each manslaughter sentence would be served simultaneously — but adding the death of an unborn child strengthens the emotional impact of the crime. It will also mark the first time the legal question of when someone is "alive" enough to be killed will be tested in the New York courts.

Prosecutor: A reckless tragedy?

According to the prosecution, Joseph Gray killed Herrera and her family after tearing recklessly through a red light before the collision.

Gray's conversation with White will make assistant district attorney Joe Petrosino's task easier, the prosecutor said. The long history between the two cops could make White's account of what Gray had to say right after the accident more damning.

How much Gray was drinking will be another issue. The officer refused to take a breathalyzer exam immediately following the accident, something Judge Anne Feldman ruled won't be allowed into evidence. But Gray's blood alcohol content was measured four hours later at 0.16 — still well beyond the 0.10 legal limit in New York.

"The important question is what his blood alcohol level was at the time of the accident," Dr. Richard Saferstein, an expert in blood alcohol analysis, told Courttv.com. "That would depend on how much he drank within an hour of the accident."

Andy Herrera

Even with a blood alcohol level of 0.16, Gray would have been 25 times more likely than a sober driver to be involved in an accident, Saferstein said. "At 0.16 you're talking about somebody who is a menace on the road."

Alcohol can take an hour to pass through the stomach and enter the bloodstream, says Saferstein, who is not involved in the Gray case. As a result, Gray's blood alcohol at the time of the accident could have been as high as 0.22 at the time of the accident — if he had nothing to drink the hour before — or as low as the legal limit of 0.10.

But, says Saferstein, who served as chief forensic scientist of the New Jersey State Police from 1970 to 1991, "with that kind of a reading, I don't think he can come up with a reasonable scenario that would allow for a .10 or lower reading — he would have had to consume a minimum of 11 12-ounce containers of regular beer to get that 0.16 reading four hours later."

Other likely witnesses for the state will include Mauro Giraldo and Angel LaFarge, two men close to the crash who testified in front of the grand jury that Gray's van was traveling at about 45 miles per hour, and another witness who claimed the pedestrian "walk" signal was flashing as the victims entered the crosswalk.

The Defense: A tragic, but blameless, accident

Defense attorney Harold Levy's tack for defending his client is straightforward: He plans to argue that his client was simply proceeding at the speed limit through a green light. "He wasn't speeding, he didn't go though the red light," Levy told Courttv.com.

Levy also contends that the dim light under the expressway, as well as an array of construction barrels in the left lane, obscured Gray's view — and, in one of the key departures from the state's version of the accident, says that the victims came from the left, not the right.

The lawyer is expected to argue that, even though Gray might have been drinking that day, it didn't cause the collision.

Levy also fought against the grand jury's decision to add a set of indictments for the death of "Baby Boy" Herrera. "As gruesome and as callous as it may sound, for purposes of detached legal analysis it must be realized that 'Baby Boy Herrera' was not a 'person' as contemplated in the homicide statute," the lawyer argued.

But the lawyer lost that battle in a pretrial ruling by Judge Feldman and says he won't belabor the issue in the courtroom. "If he's guilty of causing one death he's guilty of them all," the lawyer conceded.

Gray scored one victory in December 2001, when Feldman ruled that neither the name of the strip club nor the nature of its entertainment would be allowed into court.

Wild Wild West, the Sunset Park strip club Gray attended before the collision, is only a block West of Third Avenue, the street that Herrera and her family died on.

The club, Wild Wild West, which used to be the self-proclaimed home of the "10 dollar dance" (but has since raised the price to $20) is part of a cluster of sex-related businesses on Sunset Park's waterfront, and offers free lunch and a free after-work buffet to entice potential customers.

The club was off-limits to Gray and other officers of the 72nd precinct, even before August 4, because it falls in the same precinct they are charged with protecting.

Petrosino, who will still be allowed to establish that Gray was at a nondescript bar before the accident, said that his case wouldn't be damaged by Feldman's ruling.

"I don't care where he's drinking," the lawyer said. "If it's a topless club then that's a problem for his wife, not me."

Levy's toughest task may be deflecting the testimony of White, Gray's longtime friend who witnessed the post-crash confession. In a pretrial affidavit, Gray attacked White for airing what he thought was a private conversation. "Had I known that Captain White's questions constituted an interrogation, I would not have responded to any questions about drinking that day," Gray said.

In pretrial motions, the defense fought to have the squad car confessional, which could prove a major blow to his client's case, ruled inadmissible. The statement was given before Gray was read his rights, but is still considered an 'interrogation' — regardless of their friendship or the nature of their discussion.

But on Friday, April 12, Levy acquiesced, waiving a hearing scheduled for Wednesday on the admissibility of Gray's statement.

Levy's case, which he said on Wednesday could take as few as three days, will include an accident reconstruction specialist to demonstrate the particulars of the traffic situation that fatal night. The lawyer is also eager to attack some of the prosecution's expected witnesses — particularly one who estimated the speed of Gray's vehicle from the sound of the accident.

"It's preposterous," said Levy. "Nobody can tell by the sound how fast a car is going."

Diallo, Louima, now Herrera?

Levy's first task will be to attempt to assemble a jury favorable to his client. Although Sept. 11 revitalized the flagging status of police officers in New York, public sentiment is stacked sharply against Gray, who was painted as a boozing, irresponsible killer, and who became a focal point for activists after reports of his drinking became public.

On Wednesday, Levy asked Judge Feldman to grant him 20 preemptory challenges — which allow a lawyer to remove a potential juror from the panel without reason — instead of the 15 normally allowed. Feldman did not grant the lawyer's request.

Finding jurors unfamiliar with the case could be a difficult task, Levy argued. "Prior to the tragedy of Sept. 11, this case received as much pretrial publicity as any in the 34 years I've been an attorney," he said.

The crash sparked a collective outrage in the largely working-class immigrant community of Sunset Park. Three days after the killing, a group of about 1,000 residents, according to one report, marched to the 72nd precinct en masse, bearing picket signs and megaphones.

Led by Victor Herrera, the crowd was fueled by anger over Gray's release from jail on his own recognizance. Chants of "No Justice, No Peace" died down as Herrera spoke of his anguish. "I am here with a picture of my family that has been taken away by a cop driving drunk," he told the crowd. "Justice for me is to see him in prison, to see him in prison to pay for what he did."

Herrera's voice was not the only one heard. After serving three months in Brooklyn's Metropolitan Detention Center for trespassing on the navy island of Vieques, Rev. Al Sharpton headed on foot directly to the intersection where the accident occurred. Also, posing as a reporter, an activist cut short a press conference Gray held to apologize, screaming "No bail for drunken killer cops."

The New York Police Department refused to back Gray, agreeing to speed along his internal disciplinary proceedings, which caused him to quit the force three weeks after the collision. Citing a rash of problems in the 72nd Precinct, then-police commissioner Bernard Kerik, took disciplinary action against 17 officers, including commanding officer Captain Thomas DePrisco. The suspensions, Mayor Rudolph Giuliani said, should "send a very clear message that drinking and being a police officer is a very dangerous combination."

A fading memorial endures

The memorial on Third Avenue

Back on Third Avenue where Maria Herrera, her sister, and her two sons died on Aug. 4, 2001, a memorial ringed with caution tape still stands, its base only a few feet from the flow of traffic. Four votive candles burn next to a box of matches kept dry in a plastic bag. A collection of toys sit atop a makeshift table, and four ashen stuffed animals darkened by road dust lie toppled by the wind. A placard sits atop the menagerie, its message also dirtied but no less clear. "WE WANT JUSTICE," it reads.

Gray's supporters say they, too, want justice. Outside the 72nd Precinct this week, where wax from candles burned in honor of officers lost on Sept. 11 still cakes two concrete pillars, one officer said, "I think a lot of people just view it for what it is — a really bad accident."

Opening arguments may take place Monday and the trial is expected to last two weeks.