BELFAST (AP) – A China man charged with manslaughter and drunken driving for a car crash that killed a friend has been charged with operating under the influence three times in the past six months, according to prosecutors.

Michael Dow, 21, was charged with vehicular manslaughter, reckless conduct with a dangerous weapon and operating under the influence for a May 29 accident in Palermo that killed Eric Osnoe, 21, of Waterville.

Police said the accident happened minutes after Dow left a party despite pleas from partygoers to not drive. Dow’s Jeep Cherokee left the road, struck a utility pole and rolled onto its roof.

At a court hearing Monday, Assistant District Attorney Eric Walker told Judge John Nivison that Dow’s history of drinking and driving was one of the “more extreme cases” he had seen. He said a drunken-driving charge is pending against Dow for having a blood alcohol content of 0.08 percent when he was stopped in Kennebec County on Dec. 6, 2002.

Walker said Dow was again charged with operating under the influence after he lost control of his vehicle – on the same road where Osnoe was killed – and rolled it over into the woods at about noon on March 29. Witnesses told police the occupants of the vehicle threw beer bottles into the woods before fleeing. After Maine State Police Trooper Chris Trombly traced the vehicle to Dow and confronted him at his home that afternoon, Dow registered a 0.15 percent blood alcohol level, Walker said.

Following the May 29 accident, Dow told police he had bought a 30-pack of beer before the party, but said he could not recall the accident or how much beer he had consumed. A blood test after the wreck indicated a blood alcohol level of 0.14 percent and the presence of marijuana.

Dow’s attorney, Tracie Adamson, told Nivison that Dow was attending a program at Acadia Hospital in Bangor and had a job. She urged the judge to release Dow to the custody of his mother.

Nivison ordered Dow held without bail pending a bail revocation hearing on June 17. A probable cause hearing on the criminal charges was set for July 29.

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