PRESQUE ISLE – A District Court judge has ruled that an Easton youth did not commit manslaughter in May 2000 when his pickup truck collided almost head-on with another pickup truck, killing the teen-age driver.

Judge David Griffiths ruled Wednesday that Justin A. Michaud, 19, did not act recklessly or with criminal negligence when he swerved his pickup into the opposite lane to avoid a collision with a pickup driven by Stephen DeMerchant, 18, when their vehicles approached each other on Route 1 in Mars Hill.

It was DeMerchant who initially swerved his truck into Michaud’s southbound lane. He swerved back to the northbound lane about the same time Michaud swerved into that lane to avoid a collision.

DeMerchant died from injuries he suffered when the two vehicles collided in the shoulder area of the northbound lane. Michaud, then 17, was not injured.

Both youths were seniors at Easton High School and were best friends.

“Making a quick decision to avoid the impending collision resulting from the presence of a vehicle in his lawful lane of travel, Justin turned his vehicle in the opposite lane,” Griffiths wrote in his decision. “To have done so did not exhibit conduct that was criminally negligent when viewed objectively, and was not a departure from the conduct of a reasonable and prudent person facing circumstances existing at that time.”

During two days of testimony Jan. 8 and 9 in Presque Isle District Court, Maine State Police Trooper Mark Sperry said Michaud told him that within a period of about six weeks before the accident, DeMerchant had driven into Michaud’s lane three times as a form of greeting.

On one of those occasions, on Route 10 in Easton, DeMerchant stayed in Michaud’s lane, forcing Michaud into the opposite lane as their vehicles passed.

Michaud testified that when he spoke to DeMerchant about the incident several days later and asked that DeMerchant not do it again, DeMerchant laughed it off.

On the day of the accident, the youths’ vehicles were 671 feet apart with each traveling at a speed of about 50 miles an hour when the drivers first saw each other and DeMerchant drove into Michaud’s lane.

The two vehicles were approaching each other at a combined rate of 146 feet per second.

A State Police reconstructionist testified that 4.5 seconds elapsed from the time the drivers first saw each other until the crash.

At a point at which the two pickups were 146 feet apart – the final second before the crash – both vehicles were straddling the centerline of the road, the reconstructionist testified.

“At that point neither Stephen nor Justin could have maneuvered their vehicles in a way to avoid the collision,” wrote Griffiths.

Aroostook County Assistant District Attorney Carrie Linthicum, who prosecuted the case for the state, argued that when Michaud saw DeMerchant drive into the wrong lane, Michaud could have stopped or pulled off onto the shoulder of his own lane. Instead, she said, he continued to play the game by swerving into DeMerchant’s lane.

On Thursday, Linthicum offered no comment on Griffith’s decision.

“The judge listened to the evidence and made his decision,” she said.

Presque Isle attorney Frank Bemis, who defended Michaud, had argued that Michaud did not start the sequence of events that led to the crash and during the final few seconds had no idea what to expect from DeMerchant.

“There’s no real joy there,” Bemis said Thursday, noting that Griffiths’ decision could not change the outcome of the accident. “[Justin’s] best friend is dead.”