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Ronkonkoma mom crashes through tennis court, charged under Leandra’s Law

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Entrance to Ronkonkoma Beach.

A Ronkonkoma woman drove drunk and drugged with her 10-year-old daughter in the car, then crashed through nearby tennis courts moments after dropping the girl off at the beach on Tuesday, police said.

Kimberly Shortell, 41, was behind the wheel of a 2025 Hyundai Sonata when she dropped her daughter off at Ronkonkoma Beach, 299 Rosevale Ave., about 3:55 p.m., police said.

After her daughter exited the car, Shortell drove into a parked car, went through a chain-link fence, crossed a group of tennis courts and slammed into the chain-link fence on the far side, police said.

No one was on the tennis courts at the time.

Shortell, who was taken to Stony Brook University Hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, is charged with aggravated driving while intoxicated with a child passenger under 15 under Leandra’s Law, driving while ability impaired by drugs and endangering the welfare of a child.

Passed in New York in 2009, Leandra’s Law, makes driving while intoxicated or impaired with a child 15 or younger in the vehicle a felony.

It is named for Leandra Rosado, an 11-year-old Bronx girl killed that year when the car she was riding in, driven by the intoxicated mother of Leondra’s friend, overturned on the Henry Hudson Parkway.

Top: GLI file photo

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