Ten felony charges have been filed against a Union Township man who the Porter County Sheriff’s Police said was intoxicated and under the influence of cocaine and marijuana when he crashed his motorcycle in May on C.R. 350S in Porter Township, in an accident which killed his passenger.

Eugene Raber, 48, of 319W 600N, was charged on Monday with two Class B felonies, operating while intoxicated with a blood alcohol concentration of greater than .15 grams per 100 milliliters of blood and causing the death of another person; and OWI with a controlled substance or its metabolite in the blood and causing another person’s death. A Class B felony is punishable by a term of six to 20 years.

Raber was also charged with four Class C felonies, including OWI and causing another person’s death and reckless homicide. A Class C felony is punishable by a term of two to eight years.

In addition, Raber was charged with four Class D felonies and six misdemeanor counts.

According to police, at 7:50 p.m. on May 3 Raber was westbound on a 2001 Suzuki, approaching Porter/Lake County Line Road and traveling at a high speed, when he lost control of his motorcycle and struck a guardrail at the T-intersection. Raber and his passenger, Laura Walker, 42, of Portage, were both thrown. Walker died at the scene and Raber was transported to St. Anthony’s Hospital in Crown Point and then airlifted to Loyola University Hospital in Chicago, where he was treated for multiple injuries to his head, a broken collar bone, broken ribs, and a punctured lung.

Officer Roger Bowels of the PCSP stated in his probable cause affidavit that Raber registered a blood alcohol concentration of .139 serum value and also tested positive for cocaine and marijuana metabolites.

Posted 6/10/2009