Former “Melrose Place” actress Amy Locane-Bovenizer was charged in a drunk driving accident Sunday night that killed a New Jersey woman.
Locane-Bovenizer played Sandy Louise Harling on “Melrose Place,” a Southern belle and aspiring actress who worked as a waitress at the gang’s watering-hole, Shooters. The perky blonde appeared in the first season before being pink-slipped.
Locane-Bovenizer, 39, was driving a 2007 Chevy Tahoe when she slammed into the passenger side of a vehicle, authorities said. The passenger, Helene Seeman, 60, was killed instantly. She was a noted art historian. The driver, her husband Fred, 60, was transported in a Medevac helicopter and remains incapacitated with serious injuries.
The couple was struck as they turned into their driveway on Cherry Hill Road in Princeton. Their youngest son, Curtis, 17, was with his mother as she took her last breath.
“My mother was incredible. She had a pure spirit, and her heart was always in the right place,” the Seemans’ oldest son Ford, 23, told The Post. “She wouldn’t want me to harbor any resentment. I feel like a part of my soul is now missing.”
Prior to the fatal crash, Locane-Bovenizer rear-ended another vehicle at an intersection a few miles away, according to Somerset County Acting Prosecutor A. Peter DeMarco Jr.
While the driver phoned police, Locane-Bovenizer got back into her car and drove away, authorities said.
The hit-and-run victim followed Locane-Bovenizer, who was reportedly “swerving and knocked down several mailboxes.”
At the crime scene, cops said they noticed the smell of alcohol on the actress’ breath and reported her eyes were glassy and red-rimmed and her speech was slurred.
Locane-Bovenizer admitted to imbibing several glasses of wine before getting behind the wheel, authorities said.
Locane-Bovenizer’s husband, Mark, is a wine expert and volunteer fire fighter. They reportedly met after Locane gave up show business and returned to work at a store in Princeton that was located next to Bovenizer’s liquor store.
The couple has two young daughters, ages 3 and 1, and live in Hopewell, NJ.
The actress arrived in tears to the superior court in Somerville yesterday afternoon for her arraignment. Bail was set at $50,000.
She is charged with vehicular homicide, second-degree and third-degree assault by auto. She faces five to 10 years in state prison.