Nearly a year after a crash killed a 47-year-old motorcyclist in Gorham, a Hollis man has been indicted on one count of manslaughter.
Ernest Dubeau, 39, was indicted in June on charges of manslaughter, aggravated driving to endanger, aggravated criminal mischief, operating a motor vehicle beyond class restrictions and violating conditions of release. He’s scheduled to be arraigned and enter a plea on July 26.
Just before 8 a.m. on Sept. 15, Dubeau turned left from Route 22 onto Hodgdon Road in Gorham, crossing in front of Richard Bernard’s path, according to a crash report.
Bernard crashed into Dubeau’s truck and was trapped underneath. Dubeau told police he wasn’t aware he hit someone until he heard a loud bang, stopped, and got out to see Bernard’s bike in the road. Another driver found Bernard pinned under Dubeau’s trailer, the report states.
Dubeau told police that he checked for oncoming traffic but didn’t see Bernard, the crash report states.
Bernard was pronounced dead at the scene. A crash reconstructionist determined later that the crash was the result of Dubeau pulling out in front of Bernard too fast and not giving him enough time to react.
Bernard was not wearing a helmet. Had his head been protected, the reconstructionist wrote that he could have “possibly suffered minor injuries.” Dubeau’s car was also improperly registered, not inspected and overweight, meaning it “should not have been legally allowed to be operated on a public way,” the report states.
Bernard’s wife, Katie, said she hopes drivers will be mindful of motorcycles and more will wear helmets, she said.
“People need to pay more attention,” she said in an interview with the Press Herald on Monday. “You see a lot of tragic accidents from people being hit.”
Dubeau told police at the time that he was not impaired by alcohol or any other substances. He showed them a prescription for suboxone, to help combat a drug addiction. State police did find evidence of etizolam, a drug that’s used to treat anxiety and sleep disorders but isn’t listed as a controlled substance in the U.S. Tests also showed his blood alcohol level was less than 0.01%.
Dubeau was participating in a diversion program at the time of the crash. Roughly four months earlier, he had entered a plea agreement with the Cumberland County District Attorney’s office for two misdemeanor-level drug possession charges. Prosecutors had agreed to put off sentencing for a year, according to court documents. Now it appears prosecutors are terminating the agreement because of the new charges and Dubeau’s failure to notify prosecutors within four days of the crash.
According to court records, it appears Dubeau is not in custody. The Press Herald was unable to reach him, nor his court-appointed attorney Monday, using multiple public phone numbers and email addresses.
‘A JOURNEY WITHOUT HIM’
Katie Bernard found out about the crash from her sister-in-law. She was in a relationship with Richard “Ricky” Bernard for about 12 years before his death, calling him a “kind-hearted, hard-working” man who was good to his family.
Katie Bernard said she has heard little to nothing from law enforcement and the district attorney’s office following her husband’s death. Someone from the district attorney’s office notified her that they were pursuing charges and waiting on an indictment about a month ago, she said.
She said she hopes the district attorney’s office will push for restitution. While she and her children are still grieving the loss of their father, they’ve had to move to a different home because they couldn’t afford the house they were living in without Bernard, who was a mechanic.
He was on his way to work the morning he died and had only recently started riding the bike, she said.
“It’s been a journey without him,” she said. She still takes the kids to his gravesite in Sanford every couple of weeks.
WITNESS STATEMENTS
Dubeau had just finished picking up ice and food from Cumberland Farms and was heading to a roofing worksite in Scarborough. The road was dry and well-lit by the time he reached the Hodgdon Road intersection, according to police reports. Dubeau was well-rested, he later told police, having gone to bed around 10 p.m. the night before, waking up at 6 a.m. for work.
He had a couple of hard seltzers an hour before bed but didn’t feel like they were still affecting him the following morning, the crash report states. Officers who responded to the crash noted Dubeau was distraught and crying.
“He said he just did not even see the motorcycle at all,” wrote Gorham Police Officer Stephen Hinkley. “He says he drives a motorcycle as well and tries to be very cautious when driving around them.”
A Maine Medical Center nurse, who was driving home to Buxton, said she was driving behind Dubeau for several miles. She said his trailer was “filled with ladders” and noticed the pickup swerving “multiple times,” often crossing the center line, according to a witness statement.
She saw Bernard riding his motorcycle when Dubeau reached the intersection and watched as Dubeau looked back and took a hard left.
As Dubeau got out of his truck, she pulled up and noticed Bernard was trapped under the trailer. By the time she had retrieved a pair of gloves from her car and called 911, Bernard’s pulse was already weak and he was bleeding heavily.
Another witness, who was already at the intersection when Dubeau arrived, said she noticed Bernard before the crash and saw Dubeau’s truck turn. She watched Bernard try to swerve, but the vehicles were too close and Bernard tipped to the side.