ELLSWORTH – Paul Mason was seen driving a truck away from a party at a trailer park in Bucksport a short time before the truck crashed, killing a 14-year-old girl who was riding in the cab, according to a prosecutor.

Patrick Larson, Hancock County assistant district attorney, said Wednesday that Mason, 28, of Frankfort, was indicted on manslaughter and other charges based on statements by witnesses who say he was driving the truck in which Hope Porter died on June 20.

After leaving the party, Mason is alleged to have sped away from

Bucksport police when he was pulled over for erratic operation, Larson said. Three other people besides Mason and Porter were in the truck when it went off of Route 1 in Verona, snapped a utility pole in half and flipped over a guardrail just east of the Waldo-Hancock Bridge, he said.

Besides the manslaughter charge, Mason also was indicted Tuesday on charges of elevated aggravated assault, aggravated assault, reckless conduct, eluding a police officer, operating under the influence of intoxicants, failure to stop for an officer and driving to endanger.

Mason’s attorney, Joseph Baiungo of Belfast, said Wednesday there is evidence that supports his client’s claims that he was not driving the truck when the accident occurred.

“There are other witnesses who will testify that someone else was driving when they left the party,” Baiungo said. He declined to go into further detail about the case.

Larson said Wednesday he is still waiting on the results of tests taken on DNA found on the truck’s steering wheel. The assistant district attorney said he had to get a search warrant to get a blood sample from Mason to determine whether his blood matches that found in the vehicle.

Alcohol and speed are believed to have been factors in the wreck, according to state police. Also in the truck with Mason and Porter were April Kane, 16, of Orland, Mason’s 22-year-old brother, Adam Mason of Searsport, and Nicholas Leach, 19, of Bucksport, police said. All five passengers were in the cab of the truck, with Porter and Kane sitting in the laps of the men.

The four surviving passengers were taken by ambulance to Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor. They were treated and eventually released.

Friends of the truck’s occupants said the day after the wreck that the group had been at a friend’s house in Bucksport shortly before the accident.