Drunk Cop’s Accident Defense: ‘Strippers Drugged Me!’

Pedro-Abad-Wreck-Inset

It’s the “Strippers drugged me!” defense.

The Linden, NJ, cop who drove head-on into a tractor trailer on the West Shore Expressway in Staten Island last March — killing his fellow cop and another pal — is now claiming he may have been drugged with a date-rape drug at the borough’s notorious Curves Gentleman’s Club.

The lawyer for allegedly drunken wrong-way driver and suspended cop Pedro Abad raised the Hail Mary defense during an appearance on his aggravated vehicular homicide indictment in Staten Island Supreme Court Thursday, the Staten Island Advance reported.

The blame-it-on-the-strippers gambit does not take into account Abad’s two prior DUI arrests or the tests showing he had a .24 blood alcohol level after the fatal crash — three times the legal limit.

Abad’s lawyer, Mario Gallucci, said his medical expert believes Abad may have been drugged without his knowledge with GHB, and wants to test the cop’s post-crash blood sample for the powerful central-nervous system depressant, the newspaper reported. Abad used a wheelchair during his court appearance, and his lawyer said he still faces additional surgeries.

Outside court, Gallucci suggested to a reporter that the practice of drugging patrons is a known risk at strip clubs like Scores.

Gallucci had repped another client, Jared Reifschneider, who also caused a wrong-way crash in 2012 after also getting bombed at Curves — and the lawyer said his expert may be looking into that as a case of GHB drugging as well — though Reifschneider has already pleaded guilty and gone to prison.

The charges against Abad carry up to 25 years in prison. The crash immediately killed pal Joseph Rodriguez, 28, who was in the front passenger seat.

Frank Viggiano, 28, another Linden police officer, was seated in the back seat and died a short time after the crash at Staten Island University Center.

Abad’s partner, Patrick Kudlac, 23, was seriously injured but survived.