Crime & Safety
Wayland Native Accused in Trooper's Death Will Have Trial Date Soon
William Senne is new charges related to a 2003 car crash that severely injured State Trooper Ellen Engelhardt. Engelhardt died in 2011 having never recovered.
William Senne will wait a couple more weeks to learn his trial date on vehicular homicide charges related to the 2011 death of Massachusetts State Police trooper Ellen Engelhardt.
The trial assignment hearing scheduled for Wednesday at Plymouth Superior Court has been rescheduled for Feb. 6, according to the clerk's office.
Senne, a Wayland native, has already served 2 1/2 years in jail for the crash involving Engelhardt.Â
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The Wayland High School graduate was 18 on July 26, 2003, when he slammed into Engelhardt's cruiser parked in the breakdown lane of Route 25 in Wareham on his way from Wayland to his family's home on the Cape. He pleaded guilty in 2005 to charges of drunken driving and driving to endanger, according to WCVB.
Engelhardt, however, never recovered from her injuries and died June 11, 2011. When she died, prosecutors decided to pursue a motor vehicle homicide charge against Senne, and he was indicted by a Plymouth County Grand Jury in September 2011.
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He is now facing charges of motor vehicle homicide while operating under the influence of liquor with recklessness and motor vehicle homicide while operating under the influence of alcohol. Senne has pleaded not guilty to these charges.
Since Senne was released from jail in 2007, he has earned a college degree and founded a successful real estate business in Cambridge, according to a Boston Globe article.
Senne told the Globe that he knows these new charges are serious.
"I'm terrified," he told the Globe. "This has the potential to destroy what I look at as years of trying to live a good life out of respect for the pain I’ve caused.
"I could have very easily given up, picked up bad habits, and moved out of state. I was on the low road and I tried to figure out what the high road was. I work hard, I don’t drink or do drugs, I stay out of trouble, I’m a good guy, and now it’s all put in jeopardy by this charge."
Senne's next court date is Feb. 6 at Plymouth Superior Court in Brockton.
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