Inset: Maecee Marie Lathers. Background: The scene of the fatal accident in Miami that Lathers is believed to have caused (WFOR/YouTube).
A New York social media model reportedly told police she was under the influence of a party drug after causing a crash in Miami that left two people dead and two others injured while driving without a license, authorities said.
Maecee Marie Lathers, 24, is charged with driving without a license and leaving the scene of an accident resulting in death or serious injury, according to online jail and court records.
Florida 11th District Court Judge Mindy S. Glazer read a police report at a bail hearing, local ABC affiliate WPLG reported.
“She is an absolute danger to the community for killing or driving when she shouldn’t be in a car, and from her statements she is clearly impaired,” the judge said. “And if the citizens or witnesses nearby hadn’t stopped her, she would have fled completely.”
Lathers’ defense attorney Martez Gordon said his client poses no threat, is a college graduate and has lived in Florida for nearly two years.
“I don’t think there is anything to suggest that she is a flight risk,” the lawyer said, according to the news agency.
Lather is accused of speeding in a Mercedes-Benz on North Miami Avenue shortly after 6:45 a.m. on Aug. 10 when she ran a red light at North Eighth Street and collided with a black Range Rover, causing a rear-end crash involving two vehicles – a Range Rover and a Suzuki sedan, according to an affidavit Glazer read in court Friday.
A passenger in the back seat of the Suzuki died at the scene. The driver of the vehicle, Abraham Ismael, was pulled from the wreckage and later died in hospital. His wife Juanita Hernández – in the passenger seat – was taken to hospital, as was the driver of the Range Rover.
Surveillance video shows Lathers walking away from the scene of the accident and being pulled back to the scene by passersby, the judge read from the report.
When police arrived, they allegedly noticed that she was under the influence of alcohol and asked her questions.
“She stated that 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.
According to the judge, Lathers’ Florida driver’s license was suspended indefinitely on January 16.
Prosecutors said they are waiting for the results of a toxicology report before deciding whether to file further charges.
In a GoFundMe campaign, Ismael’s wife wrote in Spanish that her husband has a 16-year-old son and she is unable to work due to her injuries. She said her husband’s mother lives in Nicaragua, suffers from Parkinson’s disease and can no longer be financially supported by her son.
Lathers is a model with an active Instagram account.
The defendant is being held at the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center; bail is set at $140,000, according to jail records.
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