Wilkes-Barre police have filed charges in connection with a hit-and-run crash that killed a 19-year-old girl July 24 on Hazle Street.
Daniel Loughnane, 40, of Hanover Township, surrendered at city police headquarters around 9 a.m. today to face a charge of accidents involving death or personal injury.
Police allege Loughnane was driving the truck that fatally struck 19-year-old Rebecca McCallick outside her Hazle Street apartment before fleeing the scene.
Loughnane was accompanied by Attorney Peter Paul Olszewski Jr. He was arraigned by Magisterial District Judge Rick Cronauer, who set bail at 10 percent of $50,000. Loughnane wrote a check for $5,000 and was released, leaving court with Olszewski.
Loughnane's pick-up truck — a Ford F-350 Super Turbo Diesel — was seized in connection with the case following the hit-and-run death of McCallick, a Crestwood High School graduate and student at King's College.
The truck was tested for DNA, but arrest papers don't indicate if any results matched.
Arrest papers say McCallick's boyfriend, John Schenck IV, witnessed McCallick get struck and positively identified Loughnane's truck as the one that struck her.
In arrest papers, authorities attempt to develop a timeline of Loughnane's whereabouts the evening McCallick died.
Surveillance footage shows he was at the G Club 10 strip club until about 2 a.m., leaving in his truck with a friend. The friend, Jeff Erdman, told police Loughnane then dropped him off on Scott Street. McCallick was struck minutes later.
Schenck said the truck, which sounded like it had a diesel engine, fled toward Ashley.
Days later, authorities seized the truck from outside Loughnane's house at 71 W. Liberty St. in Hanover Township.
Arrest papers say Loughnane uttered incriminating statements to an estranged ex-girlfriend, who is the mother of their 7-year-old son. Jessie Spencer told detectives that Loughnane contacted her recently and tearfully asked to see his son because he would be going to jail. He noted police found DNA on his truck. She said told him, "it could be anyone's hair."
Loughnane responded, "Jess c'mon. Jeff told them where I was that night," she said.
Spencer told police that, in recent months, Loughnane changed his cell phone number and would not discuss things over the phone because he felt police "bugged" his phone.
The accidents involving death or personal injury charge — which essentially means fleeing the scene of a fatal crash — carries a mandatory minimum one year in prison, prosecutors said.
Olszewski indicated he and Loughnane would mount a vigorous defense at the preliminary hearing and at a potential trial.