William Senne trial set for May 15 in death of Trooper Ellen Engelhardt

By Globe Staff

A May 15 trial date was set today for William Senne, who was imprisoned after admitting he was driving drunk when he crashed into State Police Trooper Ellen Engelhardt’s cruiser in 2003 but is now being tried for vehicular homicide while drunk because Engelhardt died years after the crash.

Senne will be tried in Plymouth Superior Court, where the court date was set today following a hearing. Senne, who is now 28 years old, is charged with vehicular homicide while drunk and operating recklessly, and vehicular homicide while drunk, according to Plymouth Superior Court records.

Senne was 18 at the time of the July 26, 2003, crash on Route 25 in Wareham and is now the owner of his own Cambridge real estate firm that employs 20 people, the Globe reported in a recent profile of him.

Senne and his father, Peter, told the Globe that they believed the criminal prosecution should be over, given that Senne pleaded guilty to causing bodily injury while driving drunk and reckless endangerment in 2005 and served 2½ years in the Plymouth County House of Correction.

But Plymouth District Attorney Timothy J. Cruz has decided to prosecute Senne on the grounds that Engelhardt’s death grew out of the massive brain injuries she suffered in 2003, injuries that left her in a vegetative state being cared for in nursing facilities until her death in 2011.