AUBURN – A grand jury indicted a local man this week on a charge of leaving the scene of an accident. The felony charge stemmed from the death of a woman who fell off the back of his motorcycle.

John Ferland, 32, of 69 Marshall Ave., was giving a woman a ride home one early Saturday morning last summer on his 2004 Harley-Davidson. As he was rounding a sharp curve on Fairview Avenue, the woman fell from her seat on the back of his bike, police said.

Irene Douglas, 36, of 141 Rosedale St., Lewiston, was found bleeding and had suffered head injuries at about 1 a.m., a police report stated. She wasn’t wearing a helmet. She died less than a month later from injuries sustained in that accident.

Douglas was married and left behind one daughter and three sons. She had been a high school track star.

On the night of the accident, she got a ride from Ferland at what was then the Midnight Blues Club at Main and Court streets in the city’s downtown. Ferland told police that Douglas “appeared to fall asleep and became very sloppy” on the back of his bike.

A second biker, who was following Ferland that night, laid down his bike after Douglas fell off. Scott Soulard, 36, of Old Orchard Beach, also was charged with a class C felony for leaving the scene of the accident, but was not indicted this week by an Androscoggin County grand jury.

Local attorney Leonard Sharon, who is representing Ferland, said on Wednesday that he believes there is a misunderstanding about what happened that night, and that it was not a criminal act. Based on information from his client, Soulard and police reports, Sharon said Ferland had been assured by neighbors before he left the scene that night that Douglas would receive whatever medical attention she might need. He and Soulard believed Douglas was intoxicated. Soulard had left his contact information with one of the neighbors, an action that suggests the two bikers did not flee the accident scene, Sharon said.

Both men were Air National Guard members.

Ferland lost his license about 10 years ago for a drunken-driving conviction, according to court records.

Police haven’t revealed why Douglas got a ride with Ferland, whom she apparently didn’t know.