Opinion ID: 2197111
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Events of April 27 to 28, 1991

Text: At 2:00 a.m. on April 28, 1991, Bourgeois drove his car off the Maine Turnpike, causing severe injuries to his wife, Cathy. As a result of this incident, Bourgeois was charged with attempted murder, aggravated assault, reckless conduct with a dangerous weapon, and OUI. Both Bourgeois and Cathy testified that they went to five bars in the Portland area on the night of April 27, 1991. Their accounts as to what happened that night are markedly different. According to Cathy, Bourgeois consumed one or two drinks at each bar. At the fourth bar, she saw him hugging and kissing another woman, Tanya Gerrish. When Cathy became upset, Bourgeois explained that Gerrish was merely a friend. Later that night, the couple encountered Gerrish again. After a heated exchange, Gerrish knocked Cathy to the ground and pounded her head into the sidewalk. After a police officer separated the women, Bourgeois and Cathy returned to their car. On their way home, Bourgeois told Cathy that their marriage was over. [4] Cathy yelled at Bourgeois for not protecting her from Gerrish, whereupon he punched her in the face, repeatedly threatened to kill her by beating her or by turning the car over, and prevented her from fastening her seat belt. Bourgeois then looked for the right place from which to drive off the turnpike in his attempt to kill his wife. Cathy managed to fasten her seat belt just as Bourgeois drove the car over an embankment. After she regained consciousness, Bourgeois grabbed her hair and threatened to kill her if she told the authorities what happened. Bourgeois denied most aspects of Cathy's account. He testified that he ordered four drinks the entire evening and did not finish the fourth. During the car ride home, Cathy was angry with him for not intervening in the fight, and started to hit him. Bourgeois denied hitting Cathy, and instead tried to calm her down. After he told her that he should have never left his girlfriend, she started to hit him again. As a result, he lost control of the vehicle and the next thing [he] knew [they] were sitting down in the marsh [off] the turnpike. According to Bourgeois, Cathy tried to convince him to lie about the accident by telling authorities that another car had pushed them off the turnpike. State Trooper Kevin Curran, who was the first to arrive at the scene of the accident, observed that Bourgeois's eyes were glassy and that he smelled of alcohol. Based on tire marks, Curran concluded that Bourgeois had not applied the brakes before the car went off the highway. Curran also estimated that at the time of the accident Bourgeois was driving between 50 and 60 miles per hour.