Could go to prison for 3 years if charges stick.
By Deepak Chitnis
WASHINGTON, DC: Nextdoor.com CEO Nirav Tolia has been charged in connection with a hit-and-run incident he was allegedly involved in last summer.
Tolia was charged on Tuesday, last week, with one felony count of hit-and-run, by San Mateo County District Attorney Steve Wagstaff. In addition, Tolia is the target of a civil lawsuit filed by Patrice Motley, the San Francisco resident who was the victim of the alleged hit-and-run.
According to reports, Tolia and Motley were driving side by side on Highway 101 in August of 2013. Tolia allegedly tried to merge into Motley’s lane without seeing the latter’s car, and sideswiped it before moving back into his own lane. Motley’s car, however, was forced to swerve violently as a result of the contact, causing the car to spin out of control and smash into a concrete median – all while Tolia drove off.
Tolia’s wife and child were in the car, a BMW X5 Sports Utility Vehicle, with him, but no one apparently thought to stop the car and investigate the accident, nor did Tolia or his wife call the police. Motley’s civil suit alleges that Tolia owes him compensation for wages Motley lost while recovering from the accident, as well as medical expenses he was forced to incur.
In a statement to Mashable.com, Tolia claims that he was unaware that Motley’s car was in an accident, and that his car did not make any contact with Motley’s vehicle, to his knowledge. Tolia also says that he fully cooperated with the investigation in August, will continue to work with the police on any ongoing or future investigation, and that he takes the charges very seriously.
As for the criminal charge – if Tolia is found guilty of it, he could end up in state prison for as long as three years, a huge amount of time spent away from his burgeoning neighborhood social network, Nextdoor.com.
Nextdoor.com is a network that allows residents of neighborhoods to connect with each other, as a way of fostering a sense of community and, more importantly, to create an online neighborhood watch that can mitigate crime and keep streets safe. Launched in 2011, the company has been singled out for its innovation, and is already used by police in various cities as a way of monitoring crime.
Tolia is a graduate of Stanford University, where he earned a B.A. in English. He has worked for companies like Epinion, eBay, Benchmark Capital, and FanBase.