'Melrose Place' actress Amy Locane speaks out from prison: 'I'm just clinging to hope'
Amy Locane is serving her second sentence for her role in a fatal 2010 drunken driving accident, something she called “surreal” and “confusing.” In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, the Melrose Place actress said she can’t make “any sense” of Superior Court Judge Angela Borkowski’s decision to send her back to jail after deeming the original conviction too lenient.
“I feel like I have to, legally, watch every little thing I say because I don't really understand a lot of this,” the Cry Baby star, 48, said from behind bars. “It’s very confusing.”
Locane already spent two-and-a-half years in prison for killing Helene Seeman, 60, and severely injuring Seeman’s husband, Fred. She was released on parole in 2015, but her case has been tied up in appeals court. Last month, Judge Borkowski ordered her back to prison where she will complete at least a four-year sentence as New Jersey state law requires her to serve more than six years before being eligible for parole. The judge also noted Locane’s refusal to fully acknowledge her culpability when announcing the decision.
“There’s one thing after another. I have overcome everything,” Locane, who has been sober since the accident, added. “It just seems more and more unrealistic. I wasn't expecting to have to come in for as long as I ended up having to be here.”
Locane’s boyfriend and attorney, Jim Wronko, has unsuccessfully argued over the years sentencing her again violates double jeopardy, a clause in the fifth amendment of the constitution that prevents anyone from being prosecuted for the same crime twice. He has also noted that while Locane — whose blood alcohol level was nearly three times the legal limit — takes responsibility, it was Fred who turned into her lane before the collision.
“The judge obviously tailors everything in her own perspective. She says Amy doesn't take responsibility and that just tells me she didn't read anything I gave her,” Wronko told EW. “Amy takes responsibility. She should not have consumed alcohol and then drive. She was involved in the accident. But that doesn't mean you would ignore the fact that at the moment of impact, she was in her lane, and this guy cut her off. He was almost literally stopped in her lane. You don't ignore that. That doesn't mean that she's not taking responsibility. Ultimately, we just have to hope the Supreme Court takes it. We fight on.”
After quarantining for two weeks in her local jail, Locane was transferred Monday to the Edna Mahan Correctional Facility for Women in New Jersey. She told EW the first week “was really, really hard” because she only had two phone calls with her family. Locane shares two daughters with her ex-husband: Paige Cricket, 13, and Avery Hope, 11.
“I'm thinking about how my children are going through this pandemic and having to do remote learning. They do alternate days and I'm just thinking about which day they're on and which day they are off. What could possibly be going on in their minds?” she shared. “It was just very difficult to get in touch with them. It was very hard to process all of this from inside.”
While her girls knew it was “a possibility” she’d return to prison, Locane said they “didn’t understand it.”
“One was like, ‘Why are they pushing you so hard?’ I don't know. I'm not minimizing what happened in 2010. It was serious and devastating,” she said, adding, “I try to stay positive, but there is the fear that people will forget. I have a huge fear right now that my kids are gonna forget me. I won’t be home until my oldest is 18 and my youngest is 16. I can't even fathom that. I cannot even think about that.”
Locane shared that while the worldwide interest in her case is comforting now, she’s worried “when it’s no longer a story, I’ll just be forgotten.”
As for going back to prison, the actress said she’s better prepared for her “second go-around.”
“I definitely know what's going on. When I came in last time, I didn't have a clue. I didn't really know how things worked and how you can ask certain officers for things,” she explained. “But then there are moments when I'm just staring at the wall thinking, ‘Oh my God.’ It's kind of surreal.”
Locane added that she hopes “common sense prevails” in her case.
“I don't understand a lot of this. It's kind of corny, but my youngest daughter's middle name is Hope. I'm just clinging to hope right now,” she said. “God has a plan, so I'll just try to hang in there, you know? I kinda keep thinking of that and Hope.”
Watch — Amy Locane heading back to prison after completing first sentence:
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