BANGOR – A Glenburn man was given a suspended sentence Wednesday after leaving the scene of a fatal accident that took the life of a teen-ager who was in-line skating on the AA Landing Road in Glenburn on June 1, 2000.

Richard Foley received a one-year suspended sentence in Penobscot County Superior Court, where he had earlier pleaded no contest to leaving the scene of the accident that killed 15-year-old Andrew Butler.

Under the sentencing agreement, Foley will also be on probation, during which time he cannot drive a car or inspect cars, according to Penobscot County Deputy District Attorney Michael Roberts. Foley had been licensed to inspect vehicles, Roberts said.

In December of last year, Foley’s wife, 55-year-old Patricia Foley, was fined $1,000 after pleading guilty to the same charge. She reportedly told police she was driving at the time of the accident.

Responding to the victim’s family’s criticism of leniency on the state’s sentencing recommendation, Roberts said his office had little leeway in deciding with what to charge the Foleys. He said the state could not prove the couple had any criminal responsibility in causing the accident.

“I think given what we could prove they were responsible for, [the sentence] is adequate,” said Roberts, noting that the one-year sentence was the maximum for the crime at the time of the accident.

Two months after the accident, the Legislature increased the maximum penalty for leaving the scene of a fatal accident to five years in prison, according to Roberts.

After the Foleys left the scene they drove three-tenths of a mile up the road and stopped at a woman’s home to call the police. Patricia Foley went back to the scene, while Richard Foley remained at the house, Roberts said in an earlier interview.

Roberts also said speed was not an issue in the case and that the accident actually occurred at a fairly low rate of speed.