Woman Charged In Fatal Seaside Heights Hit-Run Of Restaurant Owner Released: Report

TOMS RIVER, NJ — The Seaside Park woman who is charged with hitting and killing fishing icon and Bayville restaurant owner Bob Popovics has been released from jail to await trial, according to a report.

Genell A. Mcinaw, 50, was ordered released Wednesday by Ocean County Superior Court Judge Wendel E. Daniels following a detention hearing, the Asbury Park Press reported.

Mcinaw has been charged with vehicular homicide, strict liability vehicular homicide, and knowingly leaving the scene of a motor vehicle crash resulting in death, Prosecutor Bradley D. Billhimer said.

Robert "Bob" Popovics, 75, the owner of Shady Rest in Bayville, died Nov. 1 of the injuries he suffered Sept. 23 when he was hit as he crossed The Boulevard in a crosswalk near Klee's Bar and Grill.

Mcinaw was released with the condition that does not drive a vehicle and does not drink to excess, according to the Asbury Park Press report, which included video of the hearing.

Mcinaw initially was arrested early on Sept. 24 on a charge of knowingly leaving the scene of a motor vehicle accident resulting in serious bodily injury, after investigators tracked her to her home in the hours after the crash. She was released under New Jersey bail reform rules, Billhimer said. The charges were upgraded Nov. 4, three days after Popovics died.

On Wednesday, attorney Terrance Turnbach argued for Mcinaw's pretrial release, saying she had complied with the conditions after her initial arrest and that it had been Mcinaw and her attorney who had notified the prosecutor's office that Popovics had died.

Seaside Heights police found Popovics seriously injured and unconscious on the Boulevard in front of Klee's Bar and Grill about 9:30 p.m. on Sept. 23. He was flown to Jersey Shore University Medical Center in Neptune and remained there until his death.

Authorities determined Mcinaw had hit him after reviewing video surveillance from Klee's and Hooks Bar and Grill, where she had been drinking alcohol right before the crash, authorities said.

Evidence showed she had ordered four drinks in a 36-minute span at Hooks; Mcinaw later told authorities she had been drinking at two other restaurants earlier in the day, according to the probable cause affidavit filed in the case.

Mcinaw's blood was drawn under a court-authorized warrant at 12:45 a.m. on Sept. 24, and the results of the lab testing showed her blood alcohol concentration was .187, the prosecutor's office said.

During the detention hearing, the prosecutor's office said the police officer who found Popovics in the street recognized him and knew his wife needed to be contacted immediately. The officer did not have her phone number, so he called Mcinaw, who he knew worked for Popovics at Shady Rest. When Mcinaw asked why the officer wanted Popovics' wife's number, the officer told Mcinaw he had been hit.

Mcinaw never indicated to the officer that she might have hit Popovics and never forwarded his wife's number, the prosecutor said.