John Jefferson
Insets: Maecee Marie Lathers. Background: The scene of the deadly crash Lathers is accused of causing in Miami (WFOR/YouTube).
A social media model from New York allegedly told police she was under the influence of a party drug after she caused a crash in Miami that killed two people and injured two others while she was driving on a suspended license, authorities said.
Maecee Marie Lathers, 24, faces charges of driving without a license and leaving the scene of a crash resulting in death or serious injuries, online jail and court records show.
Florida 11th Circuit Court Judge Mindy S. Glazer read from a police report at a bond hearing, local ABC affiliate WPLG reported.
“She’s an absolute danger to the community based on killing or driving when she shouldn’t have been in a car, and she’s clearly impaired based on her statements,” the judge said. “And if it wasn’t for the citizens or witnesses nearby who stopped her, she would have completely fled.”
Lathers’ defense attorney, Martez Gordon, said his client was not a danger, is a college graduate and has been living in Florida for nearly two years.
“I don’t think that there’s anything to suggest that she’s a flight risk,” the lawyer said, the outlet reported.
Lather is accused of speeding in a Mercedes-Benz on North Miami Avenue just after 6:45 a.m. on Aug. 10 when she ran a red light at North Eighth Street and slammed into a black Range Rover, causing a chain-reaction crash with two vehicles – a Range Rover and a Suzuki sedan, according to an arrest affidavit Glazer read in court on Friday.
A rear passenger in the Suzuki died at the scene. The driver of that vehicle, Abraham Ismael, was pulled from the wreckage and later died at a hospital. His wife, Juanita Hernández — in the passenger seat — was hospitalized, as was the driver of the Range Rover.
Lathers was captured on surveillance video walking away from the crash and being pulled back to the scene by bystanders, the judge read from the report.
When police arrived, they allegedly realized she was under the influence and asked her questions.
“She advised she was under the influence of ‘2c,’ a known party drug, and that she was from the future and had a crystal ball,” Glazer read from the report.
Police said Lathers’ Florida driver’s license was suspended indefinitely on Jan. 16, according to the judge.
Prosecutors said they were awaiting results from a toxicology report before they would determine whether they would file additional charges.
In a GoFundMe, Ismael’s wife wrote in Spanish that her husband has a 16-year-old son and that she can’t work due to her injuries. She said her husband’s mother lives in Nicaragua and suffers from Parkinson’s disease and no longer has the financial support her son provided her.
Lathers is a model with an active Instagram.
The defendant is being held at the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center with bond set at $140,000, according to jail records.
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