A Centerport man charged for hit-and- run.
Centerport man pleads not guilty fatal DWI hit-run
A Centerport man charged in a fatal hit-and- run incident pleaded not guilty yesterday to driving while intoxicated and leaving the scene of an accident, Suffolk prosecutors said.
At his arraignment in Suffolk District Court in Central Islip, Douglas Davis, 44, was ordered held on $250,000 cash bail or $500,000 bond, a spokesman for the prosecutor's office said.
An attorney for Davis, James O'Rourke, could not immediately be reached for comment.
Early Saturday morning, Suffolk police said, Davis was driving north on Route 110 in Melville when he crashed his GMC pickup into a Nissan 200SX driven by Melissa Scherr.
Scherr, 25, of Valley Stream, was taken to Huntington Hospital, where she died later that day, police said. She and her boyfriend, Vito Campanelli, had been saving money for their wedding, they said.
After a volunteer firefighter followed Davis to Greenlawn, police said, officers caught Davis in a Hofstra Drive backyard.
According to the felony complaint, when police asked Davis whether he'd been drinking, he replied, "Yes, I had a few." The complaint says Davis also said: "How much trouble am I in? ... Was the accident bad?"
In 2004, Davis pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs, records show. He refused to take a breath test then, according to records. His license was suspended for 90 days.
Davis is listed in a business registry as vice president of Davis Aircraft Products Co. in Bohemia.