PARIS – A Mexico woman was indicted on May 20 by the Oxford County grand jury on two felony charges of operating under the influence.

Sheena Arsenault, 19, was charged with criminal operating under the influence for driving a motor vehicle on April 2 in Rumford “while under the influence of intoxicants or while having a blood-alcohol level of 0.08 percent or more.”

The indictment states that Arsenault allegedly caused serious bodily injury to Jessie Cross and Jesse Merrill, passengers in the 1991 Chevrolet Blazer she was driving when it wrecked.

Arsenault, who also suffered serious injuries, is to be arraigned at 8:30 a.m. Thursday, May 27, in Oxford County Superior Court in Paris.

All three are still recovering from injuries suffered in the 7:37 a.m. crash on Isthmus Road in Rumford, when, police say, Arsenault lost control of the Blazer.

Front-seat passenger Cross, 22, of Mexico, and rear-seat passenger Merrill, 18, of Dixfield, who both suffered major head trauma, ended up in a pile atop Arsenault and debris after the Blazer collided head-on with a large pine tree on a slanted embankment, police said.

Two other large trees prevented the crushed vehicle from rolling down the steep embankment.

The wreck occurred on a wet road in a series of S-turns between St. John’s Cemetery and Belliveau Road when the Blazer got into the lane’s soft shoulder, and swerved back across the roadway into a stand of trees.

Arsenault and Cross had to be extricated from the wreckage and treated by Rumford firefighters and Med-Care Ambulance paramedics.

An off-duty Med-Care paramedic who witnessed the wreck while being driven to work by her husband, a retired Rumford deputy fire chief, also assisted in the rescue and alerted police.

The critically injured trio was transported by Med-Care to Rumford Hospital, and then to Central Maine Medical Center in Lewiston.

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