SCHOHARIE, N.Y. • A judge rejected a plea agreement that would have meant no prison time for the operator of a limousine company involved in a crash that killed 20 people in upstate New York. Wednesday’s turnabout drew applause and tears from victims’ relatives and plunged limo company boss Nauman Hussain into legal uncertainty.

State Supreme Court Justice Peter Lynch, who was not presiding over the case when the deal was reached a year ago in Hussain’s case, called the agreement “fundamentally flawed.”

It would have spared Hussain prison time, angering the families of the people killed when brake failure sent a stretch limo full of birthday revelers hurtling down a hill in 2018.

The judge’s rejection caught lawyers and relatives off-guard. Family members who, moments earlier, were testifying about their grief and anger over no one being accountable for the deadly crash clapped and dabbed their eyes after the judge’s announcement.

“I can’t even put into words how I feel. Totally unexpected. Thank God,” said Jill Richardson-Perez, the mother of limo crash victim Matthew Coons, while leaving court. “I’m in a better place now.”

Kevin Cushing, who lost his son Patrick in the crash, said the families “have a hope for a bit of justice to be served in the future, where we didn’t have any justice served in the past.”

Defense attorney Chad Seigel said they were “shocked” and that the judge’s move was “unheard of.”

Hussain, who operated Prestige Limousine, had been charged with 20 counts each of criminally negligent homicide and second-degree manslaughter in what was the deadliest U.S. transportation disaster in a decade.

FILE — Debris scatters at the site of a fatal limousine crash that killed 20 people, in Schoharie, N.Y. , Oct. 7, 2018. On Wednesday, Aug. 31, 2022, a judge rejected a plea agreement that would have meant no prison time for the operator of the limousine company involved the crash, drawing applause and tears from victims’ relatives who packed the court. (AP Photo/Hans Pennink, File)

Hans Pennink