Police move ahead with bar inquiry

PORTLAND – A man accused of operating an unlicensed bar that provided alcohol to a teen-ager who crashed his car and killed three passengers remains under investigation in Portland.

The Cumberland County grand jury that indicted the 19-year-old driver Friday did not return an indictment against the person or persons who allegedly supplied the driver and his teen-age passengers with liquor.

State liquor enforcement officials still are investigating John Donovan Sr., who owns a building known as Horseshoes, where the teens reportedly were drinking before the wreck in January.

“They’re going forward. It’s an active investigation,” Portland Police Chief Michael Chitwood said Monday.

Michael O’Brien, the driver, had a blood-alcohol level of 0.12 percent; the legal limit for a person of the legal drinking age of 21 to drive is 0.08 percent. Police believe alcohol and excessive speed were the causes of the crash.

O’Brien’s friends Jason Carr, 18, Nathaniel MacConnell, 19, and Crystal Young, 18, all died instantly when O’Brien, driving more than 100 mph, lost control of his Ford Taurus and vaulted over a guardrail on a bridge. The car landed upside down on a jogging path at the edge of Casco Bay.

According to court documents, the four teens began the evening in Falmouth. Sometime after 10:30 p.m., seven teens in two cars drove into Portland, and went to Horseshoes, which is Donovan’s home.

According to a Bureau of Liquor Enforcement affidavit, a man charged them $20 to enter and served them alcoholic punch. They also bought beer for cash, the investigator said.

Providing liquor to a minor can be a felony offense in Maine, punishable by up to five years in prison, if it leads to a death. If convicted of manslaughter, O’Brien faces up to 40 years in prison. He is scheduled to be arraigned Feb. 19.