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Professor at BU faces charge in fatal crash

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December 21, 2011|By Jenna Russell

PLYMOUTH - A well-known Boston University journalism professor and former longtime ABC News correspondent will be charged with vehicular homicide in connection with an October accident that killed a 26-year-old Plymouth man.

Robert Zelnick, 71, of Brookline, is scheduled to be arraigned next month on misdemeanor charges of failing to yield to oncoming traffic and vehicular homicide, following a hearing on the evidence before a Plymouth clerk magistrate, police and court officials said.

The author of four books and winner of two Emmy awards, Zelnick worked for ABC News for 21 years; he reported from Israel and Moscow and served for a time as Pentagon correspondent, according to his biography on the Boston University website. He was the executive editor of a series of historic interviews with former president Richard M. Nixon, broadcast in 1977; the Frost-Nixon interviews were later dramatized in a 2008 Hollywood film in which Zelnick’s character was played by Oliver Platt.

The accident happened around noon on Friday, Oct. 7, at the intersection of Route 3 and Clark Road in Plymouth, near the Pinehills Golf Club and residential development. According to a police report, Zelnick turned his 2006 BMW sport utility vehicle left toward the northbound highway on-ramp and into the path of a 2003 Honda motorcycle driven by Brendan M. Kennedy, 26, of Plymouth. Kennedy, who police said was unable to stop before striking the passenger side of the SUV, was pronounced dead at Jordan Hospital in Plymouth.

Zelnick said in a brief interview yesterday that he was not at fault in the crash.

“I don’t think I was culpable in any sense,’’ he said.

Police said alcohol was not a factor in the accident. If convicted on the misdemeanor vehicular homicide charge, Zelnick could face up to 2 1/2 years of imprisonment and a fine of up to $3,000.

Both men had records of multiple stops by police for driving infractions, according to the Registry of Motor Vehicles.

Zelnick was involved in two accidents in 2010 and two others in 2006 and 2007, records show. He was stopped for speeding in New Hampshire in 2001, in Boston in 2002, and twice, in Sudbury and Brighton, in 2000; his record includes other stops by police for failure to stop and a right-of-way violation.

Kennedy was stopped for speeding in Bourne in April, and for two instances of improper or unregistered equipment in Duxbury in February.

Records show he was involved in two accidents, in 2001 and 2002, in Plymouth; had two stops for speeding in Plymouth in 2004 and one in New Hampshire in 2005; and had his license suspended for 180 days in 2006 for refusing to take a chemical test.