A Farmingdale man involved in a crash that caused serious injuries was sentenced Monday to three years in prison, with five years suspended and three years of probation, according to court documents.
But the man, Rowe L. Palmer, 38, hasn’t been incarcerated, because a judge stayed his sentence pending an appeal of his case, his attorney said Tuesday.
The crash victims — a husband and a wife — “are pleased with the court’s decision,” Kennebec County District Attorney Maeghan Maloney said in an emailed statement.
In late October, a jury convicted Palmer of two charges — aggravated criminal operating under the influence and aggravated assault — in connection with the Jan. 4, 2016, crash on Route 9 in Chelsea.
“My thanks go to law enforcement for an excellent investigation that enabled us to hold Mr. Palmer accountable for the grave injuries he caused,” Maloney wrote. “Impaired driving impacts lives forever.”
Under the sentence, Palmer could go to prison for three of the eight years in his sentence, then have three years of probation. The state was seeking to have all but four years of the sentence suspended, Maloney said.
As part of the sentence, Palmer also would have to pay $8,696.92 in restitution to the victims, and his driver’s license would be suspended for six years, according to court documents.
However, Palmer is appealing his sentence to the Maine Supreme Judicial Court, also called the Law Court, because he disagreed with a judge’s decision to allow a blood test to count as evidence in his case, defense attorney Darrick Banda said Tuesday. Palmer has been free on bail.
“We’re challenging the admissibility of the blood result because we feel very strongly the Law Court will reverse the decision of the trial judge allowing that blood to be admitted,” Banda said. “We thought the sentence should be much, much lower than that, but once this appeal is litigated, then it’s very likely this conviction is going to be vacated and we’re going to go back to the drawing board.”
Both charges against Palmer were “aggravated” because of the serious injuries that resulted. Palmer has no prior criminal record, his attorney has said.
During Palmer’s trial in October, the two other people in the crash, Richard R. and Monique Morin, of Randolph, who are married, both spoke about the extent of their injuries.
Richard Morin, who had just retired at the time of the crash, was taken away by helicopter and hospitalized for a month, then spent another three months in rehabilitation and a nursing home. Maloney has said that Morin never will walk normally after both of his femur bones were broken above his knees, among other bone injury. Maloney also said that Monique Morin’s right foot could be amputated because it was crushed in the crash and has yet to heal.
“The victims in this case are fortunate to be alive,” Maloney said via email after the verdict.
But Banda has argued that the state failed to provide evidence that Palmer was under the influence of alcohol at the time of the crash, and that results of a blood-alcohol test taken before Palmer entered surgery at the hospital should have been suppressed from evidence.
In November 2016, Justice Robert Mullen rejected the defense’s pretrial motion to have that evidence suppressed. Mullen did suppress the results of another blood test that was done in the ambulance on the way to the hospital.
On Tuesday, Banda was preparing to file a notice of appeal of that decision.
“We’re proceeding forward with the appeal as planned,” he said. “The central issue in the case is the propriety of the way the police obtained Mr. Palmer’s blood.”
Charles Eichacker — 621-5642
Twitter: @ceichacker
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