WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, 2005

D.A. BROWN: QUEENS MAN ARRAIGNED ON RECKLESS MANSLAUGHTER AND OTHER CHARGES IN FATAL DRUNK DRIVING INCIDENT THAT CAUSED DEATH OF HIS WIFE ON CROSSBAY BOULEVARD; FACES UP TO 15 YEARS IN PRISON

Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown today announced that a Far Rockaway man has been arraigned on charges of second-degree manslaughter and driving while under the influence of alcohol in a fatal death-by-auto incident on Crossbay Boulevard in which his wife was killed.

District Attorney Brown said, “According to the charges, the defendant drove his automobile recklessly at high speed and struck a utility pole, causing the death of his wife, a devoted mother, who was in the passenger seat. The case is another example of the lethal consequences resulting from driving while intoxicated. Now the defendant will have to live the rest of his life knowing that if he did not get behind the wheel that evening, his wife would still be alive.”

District Attorney Brown identified the defendant as Edward Bain, 38, of 433 Beach 128 Street in Far Rockaway, Queens, a Verizon field technician. The defendant has been charged with Manslaughter in the Second Degree, Vehicular Manslaughter in the Second Degree and Operating A Motor Vehicle While Under The Influence of Alcohol Or Drugs and faces up to 15 years in prison if convicted.

The District Attorney said that a criminal complaint charges that on September 23, 2005, at about 9:20 p.m. at 525 Crossbay Boulevard in Broad Channel, Queens the defendant recklessly caused the death of his wife, Donna Bain, 35, by driving southbound a 1999 Lexus ES 300 at a high rate of speed in excess of the speed limit and, while under the influence of alcohol, lost control of his vehicle and crashed into a utility pole, ejecting himself from the vehicle and crushing his wife in the passenger seat.

District Attorney Brown said that the defendant was arrested by police officers of the New York City Police Department and was arraigned Monday night, September 26, 2005, after being treated for injuries he sustained in the crash at a local hospital, before Queens Criminal Court Judge Steven W. Paynter who set bail of $25,000 and a return date of October 7, 2005.

Assistant District Attorney Neal J. Morse of the District Attorney’s Homicide Investigations Bureau is prosecuting the case under the supervision of Assistant District Attorneys Peter T. Reese, Bureau Chief, Peter J. McCormack III, Deputy Bureau Chief, and Richard B. Schaeffer, Senior Trial Attorney, and the overall supervision of Executive Assistant District Attorney for Major Crimes Charles A. Testagrossa and Deputy Executive Assistant District Attorney for Major Crimes Daniel A. Saunders.

It should be noted that a criminal complaint is merely an accusation and that a defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty.