BOURNE -
A junior at Mass. Maritime Academy appeared in court on Friday after his alleged involvement in a drunken hit and run.
Max Yerger pleaded not guilty to six charges. The 21-year-old is accused of driving drunk and hitting three people before taking off from the scene.
Court documents allege that Yerger was hanging out at the Port O'Call bar with several other students. Students say they went to the bar that is less than a mile away from campus to celebrate the end of a grueling four day licensing test for the Coast Guard.
Witnesses tell police that Yerger was drinking heavily at the bar for four hours. They claim Yerger left the bar at 1 a.m. and got into the driver's side seat of his car.
Police allege that Yerger then hit a cadet, 21-year-old August Ciellco. He then allegedly put the car in reverse and hit another cadet, 21-year-old Gordon Kempler, and a woman, 32-year-old Alicia O'Donnell. O'Donnell was launched 45 feet off the road.
Ciellco was left lying on the lawn of a nearby home.
"He was right here, looked like he was in a lot of pain. A lot of people were yelling and on their cell phones," says Noberto Aflague, a witness at the scene.
The noise from the incident is what woke him up.
"I heard the screeching," says Aflague, "All of a sudden I looked out the window and this fella jams his car in reverse, steps on it, it was like a scene out of the ‘Dukes of Hazzard.'"
Police say Yerger left the scene, and they found him inside his car at the Way-Ho Restaurant, about a mile up the road.
They say his blood alcohol content was .18 - more than double the legal limit. During his arraignment, the prosecutor said there was hair, skin, and blood on the car near the rear of the car and that the rear window was smashed.
