By Amy Augustine
Concord Monitor
HOPKINTON, N.H. — The family of a Hopkinton police officer who died last year after being struck by a drunken driver will receive more than $1 million as part of a pre-lawsuit settlement, with $800,000 coming from Chen Yang Li, the restaurant that served alcohol to the driver on the night Sean Powers was killed.
The remaining settlement will come from the driver, Jeffrey Dennis of Henniker, and his family. Dennis, now 23, is serving a four-year sentence after pleading guilty last year to one felony count of negligent homicide and one count of conduct after an accident.
Under the terms of the mediated settlement, Dennis will pay $25,000 and his mother’s insurance company will pay $250,000 because the 1992 BMW that Dennis drove that night was registered in her name, according to the Powerses’ attorney, Kevin Leonard of Douglas, Leonard & Garvey.
In exchange, the parties are released from liability and are free from making any admission of liability, Leonard said. The Powerses cannot sue the parties regarding this matter in the future, said Chuck Douglas, their other attorney.
"(The Powerses) are just completely exhausted and overwhelmed with this process. This is one thing behind them,” Leonard said. “Their hope is that no one ever has to go through what they went through.”
The Powers family, through its attorneys, asked not to be contacted by a reporter regarding the settlement.
Sean Powers, 24, was driving his motorcycle home to Hillsboro after a shift with the Hopkinton Police Department about 1:30 a.m. on Aug. 14, 2008, when he was struck from behind by Dennis, who the police said was driving about 90 mph. Dennis and a passenger, Adam Kowalski, fled into the woods and hid from the police. Dennis was arrested about six hours later when family members convinced him to turn himself in about 5 a.m.
The case against Dennis never went to trial because his defense attorneys argued that the state did not obtain a warrant before taking one of three blood samples from him. The first test, taken about 9 a.m., showed his blood alcohol content at a legal limit of 0.05 percent. Without a warrant for the sample, prosecutors would have risked losing the evidence had the case gone to trial. The state struck a plea deal with Dennis, and he was ultimately sentenced to five to 15 years in prison, with all but four years suspended pending good behavior.
In April, the state liquor commission took up a case brought against Chen Yang Li by the state Bureau of Liquor Enforcement and Licensing. The bureau’s chief, Eddie Edwards, argued that the restaurant should have its license revoked indefinitely for allegedly over-serving Dennis and Kowalski, and for allowing the pair to loiter.
The commission heard testimony from four eyewitnesses that said Dennis was not intoxicated at the restaurant but that Kowalski may have been and that he was served an additional beer after last call. The witnesses also testified that Dennis and Kowalski were playing pool, and not loitering as Edwards alleged.
Liquor commissioners said there was insufficient evidence to find Dennis was intoxicated at the restaurant that night. The downstairs cocktail lounge of the restaurant was suspended from serving liquor for 15 days, and the owners were ordered to pay a $1,500 administrative fee, among other penalties. Chen Yang Li referred questions to its attorney, Elizabeth Hurley, who could not be reached for comment yesterday afternoon.
Leonard said yesterday the settlement was not about money but about trying to move forward.
“Money is not going to make them happy. It’s not going to give them closure,” he said. Instead, it’s a “step in the right direction for those responsible for their actions.”
Copyright 2009 Concord MOnitor