Ex-East Hanover Sergeant Gets 5-Year Prison Term for Fatal Wrong-Way DWI Crash

Keith M. Gunther must serve more than four years before parole for the October 2024 Route 23 collision in Riverdale that left one man dead and another driver injured.

Former East Hanover Police Sgt. Keith M. Gunther was sentenced on Tuesday, June 17, 2025, to five years in New Jersey State Prison for driving the wrong way while intoxicated on Route 23 North in Riverdale and causing a collision that killed a Paterson man and injured another motorist. Judge Stephen Taylor ordered Gunther, who is forty-two and lives in Wanaque, to serve eighty-five percent of the term—about four years and three months—before he can seek parole, applying the state’s No Early Release Act.

According to court records and statements from Morris County Prosecutor Robert Carroll, Chief of Detectives Robert McNally, and Riverdale Police Chief Charles Quant, the crash occurred at 10:58 p.m. on October 15, 2024. Investigators determined that Gunther’s 2021 Ford F-150 was traveling south in the northbound lanes when it struck a northbound 2005 Toyota Camry. The Camry’s front passenger, fifty-five-year-old Hamid Shabuddin of Paterson, was pronounced dead at the scene. The driver of the Camry, whose name has not been released, sustained non-life-threatening injuries and was treated at St. Joseph’s University Medical Center.

Officers from Riverdale and Pequannock Police Departments, the Morris County Sheriff’s Crime Scene Investigation Unit, and the Morris County Prosecutor’s Major Crimes Unit responded to the scene. They reported that Gunther, who was off duty at the time, exhibited signs of impairment and was charged immediately with driving while intoxicated, second-degree vehicular homicide, and third-degree assault by auto.

Under New Jersey’s Criminal Justice Reform Act, Gunther was released after his arrest under Level III pretrial monitoring, surrendered his driver’s license and passport, and was ordered to avoid excessive alcohol use while awaiting further proceedings. He entered guilty pleas to second-degree reckless vehicular homicide, third-degree assault by auto, and driving under the influence on April 8, 2025, before Judge Taylor.

Gunther is no longer employed by the East Hanover Police Department. Prosecutor Carroll urged anyone with information about serious or fatal crashes in Morris County to contact the Prosecutor’s Major Crimes Unit at 973-285-6200 or the Riverdale Police Department at 973-835-0034.