‘Melrose Place’ Actress Amy Locane Speaks on Her Life After Prison for Deadly Drunk Driving Crash

Amy Locane appears in court. (Photo: THE STAR-LEDGER/PATTI SAPONE/POOL/AP)

More than seven years have passed since Amy Locane, the Melrose Place and Cry-Baby actress, killed someone else while she was driving drunk not far from her home in Hopewell, New Jersey.

Now, as she has returned to a largely anonymous life after her prison sentence, Locane is speaking out in her first full-fledged interview about what happened, with Entertainment Weekly, in a story that traces her rise, fall and recovery.

A burgeoning star in the ’90s whose career dimmed after she was written off Melrose and then derailed after the deadly crash, Locane, now 45, told EW she feels it’s important to share her story and her mistakes with her others.

Occasionally, she’ll speak to students about what happened — as a lesson learned and as a caution.

“I’m not minimizing what I did,” she said. “That’s why I talk to high schoolers. It’s not as simple as don’t drink and drive.”

Locane, who said she has been sober for years following the wreck, was convicted of second-degree vehicular homicide and assault by an auto and sentenced to three years behind bars, of which she served two and a half.

She’s now back in Hopewell, where she works at a home-and-garden store.

“Some of the college kids I speak to are like, ‘It’s not fair because someone died,’ ” Locane told EW. “I get that. It was the biggest mistake I ever made in my life. I understand how people would feel animosity toward me.”

“I’m not looking for this as a way to get back into the business,” she said. “We are talking about something that’s incredibly sad and tragic. I think it would be sleazy to stage some sort of comeback.”

Amy Locane pictured in 2005. (Photo: AMANDA EDWARDS/GETTY)

The Scene of the Crime

EW reports that, according to authorities, Locane was intoxicated at more than three times the legal limit on June 27, 2010, when she crashed broadside into Fred and Helene Seeman as Fred, who was driving, turned left into his driveway.

Locane had been on her way home from a barbecue at the time of the wreck, according to EW. She had already rear-ended another vehicle on the trip but fled before crashing into the Seemans.

Helene, an adjunct professor at New York University, reportedly died at the scene. According to later police testimony, officers found Locane in a ditch, giggling, after the crash.

Her criminal trial, conviction and sentencing for the crash has not put an end to the controversy Locane faced for her crimes.

The judge, Robert B. Reed, sentenced her to three years out of a maximum 15 — highlighting a belief that Locane would not drive drunk again and noting a concern for her younger daughter, who has an intestinal bowel disorder.

Reed’s decision infuriated the victim’s husband, Fred, who was seen shouting on video from that day, according to EW.

“This is not justice,” he said. “Having a sick child doesn’t give you a pass to kill my wife. … What a travesty. What a joke.” (He declined to comment for EW‘s latest story and has filed suit against Locane.)

Prosecutors are appealing the sentence as Locane told EW she is trying to do good.

“It’s not an easy thing to go out and talk to these kids,” she said. “But they say if you reach just one person, then you have tried to make the situation a little better. I mean, it will always be a horrible situation.”

Click here to read more from EW‘s interview with Amy Locane.