In the clip above, he talks about why citizen filmmaking matters today in China.
RELATIVES BEGGED HIM NOT TO DRIVE
The Boston Globe (Boston, MA) May 10, 2006 | John R. Ellement, Globe Staff For more than an hour early Sunday, relatives of Patrick J. Byrne urged him not to get behind the wheel, telling him repeatedly he was too drunk to drive, authorities said. The 56-year-old Woburn man fiercely rejected the idea, becoming so combative that he threatened to punch a nephew in the face, authorities said.
Frustrated, Byrne's relatives gave up. A few minutes later, Melissa Leminen lay partially buried in the median of Route 3, where she had been tossed after her car collided head-on with Byrne's, which authorities said was traveling the wrong way.
"Why didn't anybody take the keys?" asked Leminen's sister, Cathleen Lloyd, in a telphone inter view from her parent's home in Weymouth. "Why didn't someone call 911? . . . As far as I'm concerned, I blame all of them now. I blame all of them." In a rare move, Plymouth District Attorney Timothy J. Cruz charged Byrne yesterday with second- degree murder in ignoring his relatives, driving the wrong way on Route 3 in Rockland, and driving past two motorists who tried to get him to turn around. If convicted, Byrne faces life imprisonment with the possibility of parole after serving 15 years. here south shore medical center
"I think those facts are so egregious that they need to be addressed and looked at very seriously, and I think that's what we did here," Cruz said in a telphone interview after Byrne was arraigned in his bed at Boston's Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center with court officials and the news media present.
Melissa Leminen, 26, of Weymouth, a phlebotomist at South Shore Medical Center, was killed in the crash. Her passenger, first cousin and best friend, Theresa Cordeth Leminen of Weymouth, suffered serious injuries and is recovering at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston.
Byrne was also charged with manslaughter while operating under the influence of alcohol, third offense, operating under the influence, and causing serious bodily injury.
Byrne was listed yesterday in good condition. He did not speak during his hearing but listened closely to Assistant District Attorney Frank Middleton and his defense attorney, Francis Spillane, argue about bail before Hingham District Court Judge Patrick J. Hurley.
Hurley ordered Byrne held without bail.
According to a State Police report and Middleton, Byrne and 38 other people boarded a rented bus for his nephew's bachelor party in Rockland Saturday morning. site south shore medical center
"He was universally described as being drunk, obnoxious, and belligerent," Middleton said. He said Byrne argued with several fellow passengers.
The bus returned to the Rockland park-and-ride lot along Route 228 about midnight, and Byrne's relatives urged him not to drive, according to the police report and Middleton.
Byrne's brother-in-law, John McGrath Jr. of Abington, told State Police investigating the crash that he had tried for 15 minutes to stop Byrne from driving but left, hoping that his son, Mark McGrath of Abington, would succeed.
Mark McGrath told police he offered to drive Byrne home and took his golf clubs to try to coerce him into not driving. Byrne threatened to punch him in the face, Mark McGrath told police.
Mark McGrath told police he watched his uncle drive away and then got onto Route 3 himself in the correct direction "to see if anything happened." He then observed the crash.
Another person on the bus, identified in the police report as James W. Dunne of West Roxbury, told police he "knew Byrne was bad, but never thought he was bad enough to do that." The McGraths and Dunne did not return a telephone call seeking comment yesterday.
Middleton said Byrne was convicted of drunken driving in the 1980s and in 1999.
Lloyd said the wake for her sister will be tomorrow and Friday at McDonald Funeral Home in Weymouth. "I know there are people just like us who lost a loved one to a drunk driver," she said. "We would love for them to come, and we would love their support." John R. Ellement, Globe Staff
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