BOSTON - Just weeks before going on trial in New Hampshire for running a powerboat over a kayak moments after the kayaker bailed out, a man from Weston was held on $50,000 cash bail after police said he drove drunk and struck a college student early Sunday morning in Brighton.
Benjamin Knott, 18, of 3 Nottingham Lane, Weston, was arrested and charged with driving under the influence of alcohol, reckless driving and leaving the scene of an accident with personal injury.
He was arrested after state police say he struck 21-year-old Boston College student Bethany Pfalzgraf of Londonderry, N.H., who suffered serious injuries. She was listed in good condition yesterday at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.
Jake Wark, spokesman for the Suffolk County district attorney's office, said the bail commissioner set Knott's bail at $1 million Sunday night. At Knott's arraignment at Brighton District Court yesterday, his bail was set at $50,000, said Wark.
On Dec. 18, Knott is scheduled to go on trial in New Hampshire on a charge of careless and negligent operation of a powerboat.
The New Hampshire Marine Patrol said that in August, Knott, then 17, drove a boat across Lake Sunapee and struck the kayak of a 52-year-old Jamaica Plain man. Police at the time said the kayaker avoided serious injury by plunging underwater to avoid Knott's boat. The kayaker surfaced to find debris from his kayak spread across the water, according to the Associated Press.
Knott, who was pulling a water skier, returned and took the kayaker and the pieces of the kayak back to the shore. Police said alcohol was not a factor.
New Hampshire Marine Patrol Sgt. Dave Ouellette said Knott could face a fine of up to $1,200 if convicted.
On Sunday night, police responded to a report of a hit-and-run accident with injuries at St. Thomas More Road, a public street near the BC campus, said state police spokesman Lt. David Wilson.
There, police found Pfalzgraf, a senior in BC's College of Arts and Sciences, with serious injuries.
Boston College spokesman Jack Dunn said Knott is not a student at BC, and turned onto the campus after driving away from the accident. Dunn said campus police reported to officers in the area that the car that struck Pfalzgraf had a damaged headlight.
A Boston College officer saw Knott's car driving through campus, saw it had a damaged headlight, and stopped Knott at a school parking lot near the student recreation center, said Dunn. College police held Knott until state police arrived, said Dunn.
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