Actress to attend status conference on upcoming hearing on resentencing. Watch video
SOMERVILLE -- Former "Melrose Place" actress Amy Locane-Bovenizer is scheduled to return to the courtroom Friday morning.
Locane-Bovenizer, 44, is expected to attend a status conference in Somerset County Superior Court before Judge Robert B. Reed to discuss her upcoming resentencing hearing for a 2010 drunk-driving crash that killed a Montgomery woman.
She is facing a new sentencing hearing for vehicular homicide after the Appellate Division ruled in July that the leniency granted in her original three-year prison term lacked enough explanation.
The resentencing hearing is scheduled for Sept. 30 before Judge Reed.
At that time, the judge will have to further explain his sentencing decision. He could sentence Locane-Bovenizer to additional time or rule the time she has already served is adequate.
Locane-Bovenizer was released from prison on parole in June of 2015 after serving two and a half years for the drunk-driving crash that killed Helene Seeman in June 2010. She was convicted of vehicular homicide and assault by auto and sentenced to three years for each charge to run concurrently.
The light sentence outraged Seeman's family and the prosecution. Judge Reed cited the hardship Locane-Bovenizer's incarceration would have on her two young children, including a then-4-year-old with Crohn's disease, as the reason for handing down a sentence that was about a fifth of what the actress could have received.
If the maximum penalty had been imposed -- 5 to 10 years for vehicular homicide and 3-5 years for assault by auto -- Locane-Bovenizer could have faced up to 15 years in prison.
"Having a sick child doesn't give you a pass to kill my wife!" shouted Fred Seeman, the victim's husband, who was critically injured in the crash, at the sentencing.
The Somerset County Prosecutor's Office appealed the sentence, saying it sent a "bewildering message" about the penalty for drunken driving. In asking the judge to revisit his decision, the appeals court asked him "to comprehensively explain the reasons for sentence."
The appeals court didn't say what an appropriate sentence would be.
Victim's husband wants justice
Judge Reed is no stranger to imposing controversial sentences in high-profile cases.
In April, he sentenced Clint Benson, the son of ex-Giant Brad Benson, to probation for assault by auto in a case in which Clint Benson struck a man from behind with his pickup truck during an alcohol-fueled incident.
The prosecution filed a motion asking the judge to reconsider his sentence. During a hearing on the motion, the judge upheld his decision.
Locane-Bovenizer's blood-alcohol content was more than three times the legal limit on June 27, 2010 when her SUV crashed into a Mercury Milan turning into a driveway in Montgomery Township, prosecutors said. She was driving 53 mph in a 35 mph zone, prosecutors said.
Seeman, the passenger in the Milan, was killed in the crash, while her husband, who was driving, was critically injured.
Dave Hutchinson may be reached at dhutchinson@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @DHutch_SL. Find NJ.com on Facebook.