Penfield, N.Y. --- The motorcyclist now charged with manslaughter following Sunday’s crash that killed a Fairport school teacher was just released from state prison on July 5th.
At the time of his release Mark Scerbo II, 22, served just less than nine months of a one-to-three year prison sentence. (Note: Any additional time towards that sentence that may have been served in county jail is not immediately known.) The sentence was the result of guilty pleas that satisfied two Driving While Intoxicated arrests in 2011.
Records obtained at the Monroe County Clerk’s Office show that Scerbo was arrested by East Rochester police in January 2011 and charged with DWI as well as other traffic-related offenses. The arresting officer noted that Scerbo said, “I’ve had three beers,” and that his initial breath tests indicated his BAC to be .19%.
In September 2011 Scerbo was arrested in Brighton and again charged with DWI. At the time of that arrest he reportedly told an officer, “I had six or seven beers,” and a breath test indicated his BAC was .17%.
Scerbo does not currently face DWI charges stemming from Sunday’s crash on Route 250 that killed Fairport school teacher Heather Boyum. Monroe County Sheriff’s Deputies say Scerbo was popping wheelies on his motorcycle around the time that he struck Boyum. His girlfriend Megan Merkel, 23, was driving behind Scerbo and ran over Boyum with her car according to deputies.
Scerbo’s documented legal troubles date back to 2006 when he was 17 years old and was arrested for DWI in Cayuga County as well as Burglary and related offenses in Penfield, Monroe County.
Statements Scerbo and people he was with made to police indicate that his Cayuga County DWI arrest may have occurred hours after he broke the glass door entrance to a Penfield dry cleaner and stole a black cash box containing less than $100 in it. The then 17-year-old Scerbo told a Monroe County Sheriff’s Deputy at the time, “I was drinking heavily that night and I drink like that often, I have a drinking problem and I need help with it.”
Court records appear to indicate Scerbo was sentenced to probation but in January 2007 he was arrested for violating conditions of that probation.
Those same court documents also include a handwritten note (attached) dated January 17, 2007 in which Scerbo wrote: “I will not mess up and do something that causes me to return to jail or violate my probation. This is my personal promise.”
Around 1:45 a.m. on January 18, 2007 police records indicate that Scerbo was given a ticket after he, along with some friends, were caught by Brighton police driving on the front lawn of a business and “racing around the building.”
Scerbo’s probation officer later wrote in a report, “This officer was amazed that he violated the contents of that ‘document’ less than 24 hours after signing it.”
A spokeswoman for the N.Y. State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision told 13WHAM News that Sunday’s incident is “under investigation” and so it is too early to say what if any effect it could have on Scerbo’s parole status. He is scheduled to remain on parole through September 2014.
Megan Merkel, Scerbo’s girlfriend, is charged with DWI after Sunday’s crash and she too has prior run-ins with the law. Court records show that Merkel was sentenced to probation following her 2009 arrest for Criminal Possession of Stolen Property 4th Degree and Forgery 2nd Degree. The felony complaint includes statements from Merkel that describe nearly $2,000 in charges on a credit card taken from a customer of a local Applebee’s restaurant.
Subsequent records show a report of Merkel allegedly violating conditions of her probation following the reported theft of an $800 T.V. from a woman in East Rochester in 2010. At the time the probation officer noted that Merkel told her, “I can’t explain why, I just have a problem with stealing.”
A spokesman for the New York State Department of Motor Vehicles tells 13WHAM News that Megan Merkel and Mark Scerbo II never had a valid driver licenses in this state. Scerbo surrendered a learner’s permit he had in 2007.
