(Court TV) — He was nowhere near the scene of a tragic drunken driving accident that left two men dead and one woman seriously injured, but Kenneth Powell faced charges of manslaughter, vehicular homicide and aggravated assault in the deadly crash.

Prosecutors claimed Powell was guilty of those charges because he let his drunk friend, Michael Pangle, drive. Powell had picked up Pangle from police barracks in Bridgeton, N.J., after his friend was arrested on a DWI charge.

But the defense says police were just as much at fault, if not more, than Powell. After all, they handed Pangle's car keys back to Pangle — knowing he was still drunk — before he left the station.

The case was believed to be the first its kind and legal experts speculated it could set a precedent if the jury found the defendant criminally liable.

An edited version of the trial, which originally took place July 17 to August 9, is being aired on Court TV this week.

The Arrest

Pangle began drinking at around 5 p.m. on July 21, 2000. According to Pangle's sister, his pregnant wife had been killed in car crash less than two years earlier. The widower had learned that morning that his late wife's friend gave birth to her own baby.

During visits to several go-go bars, Pangle consumed a total of 11 drinks and smoked marijuana in his friend's car.

Pangle left for the evening when George Pritchett, a corrections officer who worked part-time at a police department, observed Pangle literally falling down drunk. While following Pangle in his car, Pritchett called 911. State troopers caught up with him and arrested Pangle, who was reportedly so intoxicated that he had no idea where he was.

Trooper Bob Gates administered a few field sobriety tests, which Gates says Pangle failed pathetically. The tests were captured on the trooper car's video camera. A short time after Gates put Pangle in his trooper car, Gates turned the camera around to tape Pangle in the back seat, showing Pangle rambling, acting belligerent and changing moods rapidly.

Gates brought Pangle to the Bridgeton state police barracks. Pangle was given two Breathalyzer tests at 11:05 p.m. and 11:13 p.m. Both times, Pangle registered a .21, more than twice the .10 legal limit in New Jersey. It would have taken 14 hours for Pangle to sober up.

At the barracks, Pangle continued to be belligerent and talked incoherently. Gates and other officers say that Pangle reeked of alcohol and continued to carry on, sometimes singing, in the holding cell. Gates admits that at one point he threatened to knock Pangle's teeth out in an attempt to get him to shut up. He also admits that he told Pangle he'd call his mother only if he quieted down. Gates did call Pangle's mother and told her that her son had had too much to drink.

Gates asked Pangle if he had a friend the police could call to pick him up. Pangle gave him the name of his friend Kenneth Powell.

The Call

At 11:00 p.m. that night, Powell, a manual laborer at a warehouse, was asleep in bed with his fiancée, Karen Brown, when the phone rang. Neither answered it, but Caller I.D. indicated the call came from the state police barracks in Bridgeton.

A short time later, the phone rang again and Powell answered. Gates testified that he informed Powell that his best friend, Michael Pangle, had been arrested for DWI and needed a ride home.

Gates said Powell was hesitant to pick up his friend and claimed he didn't have anyone else to bring with him to drive back Pangle's black SUV, which had been left at the spot near where he was arrested. Gates testified he told Powell that a second driver was not necessary; they could pick up the truck the next day.

According to Brown, however, Powell told her after the call that Gates had said Pangle had had "too much to drink," not that his friend had been arrested for DWI. Brown said she insisted that Pangle should take a cab, because she did not want Powell's drunk friend in their home and throwing up in her car. Depsite Brown's protests, Powell finally went to pick up Pangle in her car.

Powell arrived at the police barracks between 12:20 and 12:30 a.m. Pangle was brought out to meet him. According to officers, while Powell was in the waiting room, an officer was instructing a woman whose husband had just been arrested for driving under the influence of prescription drugs. The officer told the woman to not let her husband drive. He says Powell was close enough that he could have heard these admonitions.

Gates said he collected Michael Pangle's personal belongings, including his car keys. He put the keys in Pangle's baseball cap, and handed the cap back to Pangle.

In the parking lot of the police barracks, another state trooper saw Pangle and Powell and gave them directions to the SUV. He also said that the street where it was parked was "lit up." The trooper testified that after giving directions, he warned Pangle: "But you better not drive. You're drunk."

What exactly transpired between the pair's departure from the barracks and their arrival at Pangle's truck is still unknown, but according to Powell's police statement, Pangle told him that he was not drunk, that he'd done nothing wrong, and that police were harassing him.

Powell claims that when he dropped off Pangle at his truck, the two agreed that Pangle would follow Powell. Instead, however, Pangle sped ahead of Powell.

Prosecutors drew attention to the fact that it took longer than it should have for Pangle to get from the police barracks to his truck and then to the scene of the accident, insinuating that perhaps Pangle and Powell stopped for a drink when they left the station. The distance from the barracks to the truck was 7.6 miles, and from the truck to the accident scene was another 18.8 miles.

On a "simulated run," police took 34 minutes to cover the same 26.4 miles, going about 5 miles below the speed limit. Pangle and Powell left the police barracks around 12:26 a.m. The accident occurred around 1:20 a.m., 54 minutes after Pangle left the barracks. That leaves an approximate 18-minute gap, comparing his time to the police estimate.

While prosecutors suggested Pangle and Powell could have stopped for a drink during that time, there is absolutely no evidence of this. However, Pangle's autopsy showed a blood alcohol level of .264, meaning he did drink more after leaving the police barracks.

Pangle's autopsy also showed a significant amount of brown liquid in his stomach with a significant alcohol content. The defense suggested that Pangle drank more in his truck alone. A witness from the accident said she saw something that looked like a beer can in Pangle's car and a paper bag that looked like it had contained a bottle of alcohol. Other evidence indicated Pangle had Jack Daniel's whiskey in his car. Nobody else reported seeing those items, and they were never recovered.

The Accident

Around 1:20 a.m., John Elliott, a 22-year-old Navy Ensign, was driving on Route 40 in Upper Pittsgrove, N.J., with his girlfriend, Kristen Hohenwarter, in the passenger seat. Earlier that night, Elliott — who was looking forward to pursuing his dream of attending flight school in Pensacola, Fla. — had celebrated his mother's 51st birthday in his parents' Egg Harbor Township home.

After the celebration, the couple were traveling in Elliot's Nissan Altima on a two-lane road when he saw another vehicle approaching him in the opposite lane. Hohenwarter says as the oncoming car approached, she heard Elliott curse — something he never did.

The oncoming SUV veered into Elliott's lane, slightly hit an oncoming trailer, missed another car that swerved off the road, and then crashed head-on into Elliott's car.

The crash left Elliott and Pangle dead. Kristen Hohenwarter was seriously injured and was in a coma for about a week, sustaining traumatic brain injury, damaged motor skills, and memory loss.

Shortly after the accident, Kenneth Powell caught up to the scene. He was behind Pangle, but exactly how far is not known. He says he saw the crushed SUV and thought it looked like his friend's, only to realize his fears when he looked inside.

Witness Karen Webb, who swerved her car to avoid the accident, remembered looking inside both cars. She said inside Pangle's car she saw what looked like a beer can and a paper bag that could have carried a beer can, but nobody else at the scene reported this. Prosecutors have suggested that Powell removed the beer can from the vehicle at the scene, while defense lawyers have insinuated that a state trooper hid the evidence.

Powell called 911 and waited for police to arrive. State police from the local barracks in Woodstown arrived first. Powell told them what happened, including that the police had just released Pangle.

Troopers called the Bridgeton station, which sent troopers to the scene. Powell was arrested, originally on an "allowing" charge and for not having changed the address on his license when he moved. The "allowing" charge is part of New Jersey's motor vehicle DWI statute, which holds a person responsible for allowing a drunk person to drive.

The statute generally is applied to situations in which the "allower" has control or possession of the vehicle. It is technically not a crime, but a motor vehicle violation. In this case, prosecutors later decided to charge Powell with three felonies.

At the police barracks, Powell gave a verbal statement that was typed out by one of the officers. At first Powell was cooperative. But when he reviewed the statement and was given the opportunity to make changes, he stopped and refused to continue or to sign the statement. Powell seemed to change tones when he reviewed the question about why he didn't take Pangle home. He told the officers that he was being asked "trick questions," as if suddenly realizing he was in trouble.

Prosecution v. Defense

Prosecutors claimed police did nothing wrong. They said police responsibility ended when they handed Pangle over to a sober friend, and that officers never expected that Powell would "let" Pangle drive that night.

Police admitted that the friends had a right to go the car and retrieve anything from it that Pangle needed, adding that police had no right to keep Pangle's keys or were required to keep Pangle locked up. Gates was subjected to an internal affairs review and was cleared of any wrongdoing.

There was no statutory or written police protocol as to how to handle the situation. The only statute that could arguably apply was one that allows police to arrest someone for DWI with probable cause without a warrant. The police can then bring that person before a judge or clerk or deputy clerk, but the statute doesn't specify what would happen then.

The defense said that old case law states that the judge could authorize further detention of the suspect because drunkenness poses a danger to the public. The Arrest Without Warrant statute further states that if no judge or clerk is available, the police can detain the suspect for up to 24 hours from the time of arrest.

According to Powell's police statement, Pangle assured him that he had done nothing wrong and that he was not drunk. He said Pangle told him that he was arrested for drinking too much, not for DWI. According to Powell, Pangle said that the police were mad at him because he was screaming and hollering and they just wanted to get rid of him.

Powell testified Pangle also told him that an officer threatened to knock his teeth out. Powell claimed he also assumed that if someone were arrested for DWI, he would have to post bail to be released by police. Powell said that's the way it is in Missouri, where he is from.

The defense suggested that this horrible tragedy was resulted from poor legislation and police protocol, and not any criminal action by Kenneth Powell.

The defense claimed police did not take the time to properly inform Powell of Pangle's intoxicated state and the details of Powell's responsibility. The defense also suggested that the trooper who gave Powell directions to Pangle's car must have known that Powell and Pangle planned to go to the vehicle that night because he referred to the street where Pangle's car was parked as being "lit up."

The defense also suggested that it was very possible that Pangle did not appear visibly drunk to Powell by the time he picked him up at the police station. Almost an hour and half had passed since Pangle's first Breathalyzer test, and even more since he was arrested and appeared intoxicated on Trooper Gates' video tape.

In addition, the defense argued, Pangle, a veteran drinker, was skilled at pretending to be sober. They suggested that Pangle, who was missing at least one tooth, never had particularly clear diction and that his eyes were always red because of the chemicals he was exposed to as a house painter.

Controversial Case

Many believe that this prosecution never should have happened. Even if Powell did know that Pangle was drunk or arrested for DWI, some argue, to hold him responsible for Pangle's actions simply pushes the limits of liability to an inappropriate level.

Critics point out that it is a slippery slope. What about the toll booth collector who notices someone is intoxicated? Or the gas station attendant who fills the car of a drunk driver? Are they criminally liable if they don't stop a visibly drunk person from driving?

Others counter that Powell was in a different position than those examples because he was specifically called by police to pick up his friend and was well aware of his responsibilities.

Some contended that the jury in this case was improperly asked to decide an issue of law. Although there were many factual issues in dispute, even if the jury were to find that Powell let Pangle drive knowing he'd been arrested for DWI, they would be in the position of deciding whether that behavior was criminal. There is no precedent for this particular situation and no law directly addressing it. The prosecution says the accomplice liability statute applies.

Another argument contends that if Michael Pangle had survived the crash, it would be he who would sit in the defendant's chair, not Kenneth Powell. Some said that Powell was prosecuted as a scapegoat to get police off the hook. Prosecutors claimed that if Pangle survived, the two would be co-defendants and Powell would not be off the hook, but many are skeptical and say only Pangle would have been charged.

John's Law

Bill Elliott, son of a naval officer and proud father of John who had just graduated from Annapolis Naval Academy, was determined not to let his son's death go to waste. He made such a promise to his son and has been successful in having legislation passed and perhaps saving lives with his Hero Campaign.

Because of Bill Elliott's activism, New Jersey passed "John's Law." According to John's Law, police must impound the car of someone arrested for DWI for 12 hours. In addition, a person who picks up someone arrested for drunk driving must sign a paper stating his or her knowledge that letting the person drive could result in criminal or civil liability.

In addition, some say the possibility of criminal or civil liability would make people reluctant to pick up their drunk friends and family if they are given such a level of responsibility with grave consequences if something goes wrong.

Senator John Corzine of New Jersey is currently proposing that it become federal law.

Bill Elliott also started the Hero Campaign, a program that promotes the designated driver. Elliott works with many businesses, including bars, to promote the program. The Hero Campaign logo features his son's picture and the slogan, "Be a Hero - Be a Designated Driver." The Elliotts distribute literature advertising the program and even have a pilot fly a HERO campaign banner ads over the New Jersey shore beaches. Literature on the program is contained in the anchor packet.

The Stakes

If convicted, Powell faced 10 years for manslaughter and 10 years for vehicular homicide. If convicted of both charges, he would be sentenced only on one of them. The maximum sentence for aggravated assault, a third-degree felony, is five years.

The Verdict