‘Came out of the woods like the Dukes of Hazard’: Murder charge reinstated against state trooper for 11-year-old girl’s death during highway chase, appeals court cites ‘pattern’

Christopher Baldner, on the left; Monica Goods, on the right.

Left: Christopher Baldner (Ulster County Sheriff’s Office). Right: Monica Goods (GoFundMe).

A New York State appeals court has reinstated a murder charge against a former state trooper for allegedly causing the death of an 11-year-old Brooklyn girl during a chase. The decision reverses an earlier dismissal issued by the trial court judge overseeing the matter.

In October 2021, Christopher G. Baldner was indicted by an Empire State grand jury on a charge of murder in the second degree for the death of Monica Goods, 11. He was also charged with one count of second-degree manslaughter and six counts of first-degree reckless endangerment. The next month, he was denied bail.

In February 2023, Ulster County Court Justice Bryan E. Rounds dismissed the murder charge, more or less allowing the lesser charges against Baldner to stand; the reckless endangerment charges were cut in half and also reduced to second-degree violations.

New York Attorney General Letitia James, a Democrat, appealed the lower court’s dismissal of the murder charge, which was granted in a 4-1 opinion by a panel of judges sitting in Albany on Thursday.

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