Bob Menendez’s Wife Nadine Arslanian Hit and Killed Someone With Car in 2018: Report

The wife of embattled New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez fatally struck a man with her car in December 2018, according to an unearthed police report first obtained by the Bergen Record.

Nadine Arslanian Menendez was driving her Mercedes-Benz on a darkened Main Street in the town of Bogota on the evening of Dec. 12 when she struck a man who was in the middle of the road, according to the report.

The victim was identified as Richard Koop, 49, of Bogota. He left behind a son, according to his obituary.

Arslanian, who was dating Menendez at the time, was cleared of wrongdoing and not charged or issued a summons, according to the report.

Police determined that Koop had been jaywalking.

Sen. Menendez and Arslanian, who since married, were recently indicted by a grand jury in New York in connection with a sprawling alleged bribery scheme.

The deadly incident and the senator’s future wife’s connection to it were not reported for years but surfaced in the indictment.

Prosecutors claimed that Sen. Menendez needed a car after a December 2018 "accident" and was willing to interfere in the criminal prosecution of a New Jersey businessman in exchange for a $60,000 Mercedes convertible.

That "accident" lines up with the description of Arslanian's fatal crash.

The police reports indicate Arslanian was never tested for drugs or alcohol at the time of the collision.

Koop’s sister told the New York Times the family had serious concerns over the investigation into the death.

“Definitely a lack of legal enthusiasm to take this case, definite lack of media coverage, and a lack of communication by the authorities of Bergen County,” Rosemarie Koop-Angelicola said. “We felt that the whole thing was very silently swept under the rug.”

The federal bribery trial for Sen. Menendez, Nadine Arslanian Menendez, and three other defendants is set to begin next May.