Beverly officer convicted of vehicular homicide to get new trial
A Beverly police officer who was convicted in March of killing a woman with his cruiser will get another trial because new evidence has been discovered in his case.
A Peabody District Court Judge granted Stuart Merry a new trial yesterday in the crash that killed 61-year-old Bonney Burns.
Prosecutors had argued at trial that Merry was sitting upright at the time of the crash and operating negligently when his cruiser crashed into Burns's parked car. They said Merry's head caused a crack on the windshield, according to Jake Wark, a spokesman for the Suffolk district attorney.
But a state trooper who was part of the crash analysis team had a different opinion, Wark said. The trooper's opinion wasn't discovered until after the trial.
Neil Rossman, Merry's lawyer, said the trooper believed the crack was crash damage not caused by Merry's head. That finding, he said, "certainly gives credence" to the defense's contention that Merry had suffered a seizure and was lying incapacitated in the front seat during the crash.
"I'm pleased and grateful that the court adopted our argument, saw the law as we stated it, and gave us the relief that we were looking for," Rossman said after the ruling by Judge Robert Brennan.
The crash occurred shortly after 9 a.m. on Jan. 20, 2007, on Cabot Street in Beverly. Merry's cruiser accelerated as he drove south, crossing a set of yellow lines and heading into the northbound lane. It then struck Burns's 1988
Prosecutors have said that Merry was speeding and there was no evidence that he tried to avoid hitting Burns. Suffolk prosecutors tried the case, though Beverly is in Essex County, to avoid any appearance of a conflict of interest.
Merry, 41, was convicted of motor vehicle homicide by negligent operation and sentenced to three years of probation and a $1,000 fine.
Prosecutors will return to court June 23 to set a new trial date.
"The judge ruled that a jury had the right to see that evidence. . . . We try our cases with the very highest ethical standards, and we're prepared to retry this one in the interests of justice," Wark said.
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