Amy Locane: 'Melrose Place' actress sentenced to 5 years in prison for fatal Somerset DWI accident

SOMERVILLE - After a lengthy and emotional hearing almost nine years after she was charged with causing a fatal crash in Montgomery, Amy Locane was sentenced to five years in state prison.

However, Locane will remain free on her own recognizance pending an appeal of the sentence handed down Friday afternoon by Somerset County Superior Court Judge Kevin Shanahan.

Exactly how much time Locane will spend in prison is not yet known, depending on the calculation of how much credit she will be given for the time she has already spent incarcerated.

Somerset County Assistant Prosecutor Matt Murphy, who had been involved in the case since the beginning, had asked Shanahan to impose a 9-year sentence, which is at the upper range of the five- to 10-year range for second-degree crimes.

James Wronko, Locane's attorney, said he was confident she would prevail in the appeal.

“The Appellate Division will certainly be asked to decide whether they intended to bind the trial judge with their sentencing instructions when they issued them to Judge Shanahan almost a year ago,” Murphy said.

It was the third sentencing for Locane, the former actress who starred with Johnny Depp in “Cry-Baby” and was a featured player on the TV series “Melrose Place.”

Locane had been previously sentenced to three years in state prison on charges of vehicular homicide and assault by auto in connection with the death of Helene Seeman in a drunken driving crash. Her husband Fred was severely injured in the crash as the couple were turning into their driveway of their weekend home at about 9 p.m. June 27, 2010.

Mrs. Seeman died at the scene. Their teenage son Curtis saw her die after he ran out of the house when he heard the crash.

The Seeman family declined to speak to the media after the sentencing.

Authorities said Locane’s blood alcohol content was .23 percent, almost three times the legal limit of. 08 percent. They also said she was driving 53 mph in a 35 mph hour zone.

Locane was resentenced after a state appellate court ruled in March 2018, following an appeal by the Somerset County Prosecutor’s Office, that her three-year sentence was "excessively lenient."

Both Fred Seeman and his son Ford spoke emotionally before the judge. The two broke into tears as they told Shanahan how the fatality had affected their lives.

Fred Seeman said that Locane has shown a lack of contrition and a lack of taking responsibility for the accident.

He emphasized that Locane should be given a stiff sentence so that a message could be given for people who want to drink and drive.

He also said that he came close to death twice as result of a hole in his diaphragm suffered in the accident. The second instance came five years after the accident, he said.

Fred Seeman emphasized the trauma suffered by his son Curtis who saw his mother die on their front lawn. Cutis is "damaged," he said.

Ford Seeman said Shanahan had an opportunity "to restore my faith in the justice system."

"Give my family the peace we deserve," he said.

He said that the "dastardly" crime that Locane had committed "destroyed my family" and they are still waiting for justice.

He called Locane a "monster" who has "avoided accountability" for the crash. He said that Locane's attendance at AA meetings and lectures to high school and college students about the dangers of drunken driving does not make her "a good person."

"There is not a day that has gone by that I have not thought of the pain that my actions caused," Locane told the judge.

"I have done everything I can do to be not the person who did what I did nine years ago," Locane continued, adding that she is "very, very sorry" for the Seeman family.

Shanahan, who said that he has spent more than 100 hours on the case, said he based his sentencing on "the crime, not the criminal."

The judge said that "bad judgment" was shown by all parties in the nine-year legal process.

Legal process

Locane had previously been sentenced twice by retired Superior Court Judge Robert Reed on Feb. 14, 2013 after a jury found her guilty in November 2012. Locane was sentenced to three years in state prison when Reed downgraded her conviction to a third-degree crime. Conviction of a second-degree crime carries a minimum five-year sentence.

Locane was released from the Edna Mahan Correctional Facility on June 12, 2015 after serving 85 percent of the sentence.

Three years after the original sentencing, in July 2016, the state Appellate Court affirmed Locane’s sentence but reversed the sentence, sending it back to Reed so he could explain his reasons for imposing the three-year term.

The appellate court said that Reed had failed to include a mandatory three-year requirement before she would become eligible for parole and that he had overlooked the severity of the offense in determining the sentence.

On Jan. 13, 2017, Reed again re-sentenced Locane but did not change his sentence.

Reed said that Locane had remained sober and that further incarceration would traumatize her children and potentially have lifelong consequences.

Reed also said there was no “compelling” reason to return Locane to prison. The judge said that if Locane were sentenced to five years as required for a second-degree crime, she would have to return to prison for 22 months. Reed said that sentence would serve “no legitimate sentencing purpose, other than retribution.”

The Somerset County Prosecutor’s Office again appealed Reed’s sentence and the state Appellate Court agreed, saying that a new judge must perform the sentencing because Reed, who has since retired, did not follow the appellate court's first ruling.

"This sentence shocks our judicial conscience," the appellate court wrote in a 43-page decision, adding that Reed "overlooked the single most important factor in the sentencing calculus: the severity of the crime."

The appellate court added Reed's sentence on the charges "resulted in a free crime" and Locane went "unpunished."

"That is an error we cannot correct," the appellate court wrote.

"It is important for the public as a whole to see that a drunk driver will not be shielded from the sanction of lengthy imprisonment should that driver kill or injure another, even if she or he previously led a blameless life," the court added.

READ:Amy Locane: State Supreme Court won't hear 'lenient' sentencing appeal

READ:Family in fatal Locane DWI crash to receive $4.8M

In 2017, the Seeman family was awarded $4.8 million in an out-of-court agreement in a federal civil lawsuit.

Staff Writer Nick Muscavage: 908-243-6615; ngmuscavage@gannettnj.com

Contributing: Associated Press