Nearly five months after the fiery car crash in northeastern asschusetts that killed rising sophomore Matthew Navien, investigators say they are moving steadily toward a manslaughter trial of the man accused of causing the fatal collision.
Paul D. Mscisz, 29, of Haverhill, Mass., was indicted by a grand jury on Oct. 19 on three charges of manslaughter and vehicular homicide related to Navien’s death. He pleaded not guilty to all three counts at his arraignment last Tuesday and has been jailed pending a hearing today that will determine whether he will remain in custody without bail.
Prosecutors also confirmed for the first time that they believed scisz was drunk and unable to safely operate his vehicle at the time of the accident, according to documents filed in Essex County Superior Court in Salem, Mass. The investigators accused Mscisz in indictments of driving with a blood alcohol level over .08, the state’s legal limit.
A preliminary police investigation concluded that Mscisz crossed the center line of a highway near North Andover, Mass., early on the morning of June 18, striking Navien’s 1991 Oldsmobile Cutlass. Witnesses told police that Mscisz was driving erratically, speeding and revving his engine at stoplights before the crash, which left one vehicle in flames and the other so badly damaged that rescuers could not initially open its doors.
Officers who attempted to interview Mscisz shortly after the accident at Lawrence General Hospital said they were unable to ask him questions because he was heavily sedated, according to a police report. The officers also wrote that they detected “the odor of alcoholic beverage coming from his person.”
North Andover Police Department Inspector Dan Cronin said that scisz had undergone a blood alcohol content test shortly after the crash, although the results of that test have not yet been released. Cronin said that the investigation was still ongoing.
“It remains an open investigation pending any new information that comes out,” Cronin said. “Right now it’s still in the court process.”
Mscisz’s case, which was originally brought in state district court, was moved to superior court late last month after the grand jury returned the three indictments. Cronin said that the new venue is typically used for more serious cases, such as homicide.
“The district court can only hear certain criminal cases, and anything that doesn’t fall within their jurisdiction goes to superior court,” he said.
Officials said that the time the case would take to reach a trial could vary, although a trial would probably occur within the next year and a half.
Steve O’Connell, spokesman for the Essex County District Attorney’s Office, said that the trial date would depend on how long attorneys spend on procedural negotiations and debates in coming weeks.
“It’s really impossible for me to say” when a trial will be held, O’Connell said. “We’re in the process of moving toward trial.”
O’Connell also said that prosecutors would attempt to keep scisz in jail by portraying him as a continuing danger to the community at today’s hearing.
“We have to prove that this person represents a danger to the community, and if we’re successful in proving that, he can then be held without bail for 90 days,” he said.
Navien, 19, was an active member of Georgetown’s Army ROTC program and was serving as a summer camp counselor near his hometown of Haverhill, Mass. Friends and family said that he hoped to become a diplomat after he graduated from Georgetown.
Family, faculty and friends, including several fellow ROTC cadets, attended a memorial service for Navien on Sept. 9 in Dahlgren Chapel.
Neither Mscisz nor his attorney, Jeffrey E. Wilson, could be reached for comment yesterday.