$4.8M Settlement Reached in 'Melrose Place' Actress' Fatal Drunken-Driving Crash
The family of a woman who was killed in a drunken-driving crash with former "Melrose Place" actress Amy Locane has agreed to a $4.8 million settlement…
November 07, 2017 at 05:43 PM
5 minute read
The family of a woman who was killed in a drunken-driving crash with former “Melrose Place” actress Amy Locane has agreed to a $4.8 million settlement of her suit in federal court.
Under the terms of the settlement, the hosts who allegedly served Locane drinks at a barbecue shortly before the crash, Rachel and Carlos Sagebien, will pay $3.3 million and Locane and her husband, Mark Bovenizer, will pay $1.5 million. The settlement was reached in early October, following a Sept. 25 ruling by U.S. District Judge Anne Thompson denying summary judgment motions by the Sagebiens, and Bovenizer.
Court records said the case was scheduled for administrative termination on Dec. 1, pending consummation of undisclosed settlement terms. The terms were disclosed by a lawyer familiar with the settlement proceedings. The Sagebiens' settlement will come from their homeowners' and umbrella policies with Chubb and Bovenizer's from his auto and umbrella policies with Travelers, according to this person, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The litigation stems from a June 27, 2010, crash on a rural road in Montgomery Township in which Locane, driving 53 mph in a 35-mph zone, struck a car occupied by Fred and Helene Seeman. Helene Seeman died in the crash and her husband, who was driving, was seriously injured.
The couple's car was pulling into their driveway when the crash occurred, and their son, Curtis, then 17, came out of the house and witnessed his mother's last moments.
On the day of the fatal crash, Locane performed in a play at a theater in Hopewell, then had two glasses of wine and part of a third, according to her testimony. She then went to the barbecue at the Sagebien home in Montgomery.
She testified that she had two or three glasses of wine at the barbecue, where she stayed for about 90 minutes. Both Carlos and Rachel Sagebien testified that Locane appeared intoxicated. Locane testified that she and Bovenizer, who had arrived in a separate car, made plans to leave together but after she used the bathroom she found that he had taken the couple's two children and left without her.
Locane left the party in her husband's Chevrolet Tahoe, then had a minor collision in Princeton. After speaking to the other driver, she left the accident scene and headed down Cherry Hill Road, where she collided with the Seeman vehicle.
Locane's blood-alcohol level after the accident was .268, more than three times the legal limit of .08. She pleaded guilty to third-degree vehicular homicide and assault by auto and served two and a half years in jail.
Thompson denied the Sagebiens' motion for partial summary judgment in September after finding that the question of whether they truly believed she would not drive herself home was a matter for a jury to decide. The judge likewise found the question of whether Bovenizer knew or should have known that Locane was drunk when he entrusted to her his car keys and access to his car was a jury question.
The civil suit, filed in December 2010, moved slowly because of a concurrent criminal case against Locane. A stay of the criminal case was lifted in December 2012 after two years.
John Lamastra of Kirmser, Lamastra, Cunningham & Skinner, house counsel for Chubb, who represented the Sagebiens, did not return calls about the case.
The lawyer for Locane and Bovenizer, Linton Turner Jr. of Mayfield, Turner, O'Mara & Donnelly in Cherry Hill, declined to discuss the case through an assistant.
The plaintiffs were represented by Raymond Silverman of Parker Waichman in New York. A person answering the phone there said Silverman would not comment on the case.
Locane was ordered to face resentencing for her role in the crash after a 2016 Appellate Division ruling said her sentencing judge, Robert Reed of Superior Court in Somerset County, failed to provide compelling reasons for his decision to downgrade her sentence from the mandatory minimum. The appeals court said Locane must be resentenced on her charges, which include second-degree vehicular homicide and third-degree death by auto.
The statute requires a defendant convicted of second-degree vehicular homicide to serve a minimum term of imprisonment of three years, even when sentenced as a third-degree offender. The sentencing judge downgraded the sentence based largely on the impact Locane's absence would have on her two young children, one of whom has Crohn's disease. Free Seeman angrily protested the sentence as too lenient when it was delivered.
But Reed refused to revise the sentence when the case was remanded to him in January.
Locane, 46, has appeared on the large and small screens, including the 1990 movie “Cry Baby,” where she appeared opposite Johnny Depp. In 1992 she was cast in the television series “Melrose Place,” where she appeared in 13 episodes.
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