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Don Merce

Tuesday, December 18, 2012

Man Sentenced to 41 Months in Prison For Involuntary Manslaughter Death of Little Silver Principal

Accident occurred in May 2008 on Fort Monmouth property

A Tinton Falls man was sentenced to 41 months in prison for the involuntary manslaughter death of Donald Merce, a principal from Markham Place School in Little Silver. Dennis Smenktowski, 47, pleaded guilty in 2011 to one count of involuntary manslaughter for driving his car while impaired by the sleep medication Ambien, causing the death of Merce, 58, in a head-on collision, on May 6, 2008, U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman announced today. Smentkowski is a retired Long Branch police officer. According to a release from the United States Attorney's Office, Smentkowski was driving his Ford Explorer southbound on Oceanport Avenue near the east gate of Fort Monmouth at 7 a.m., when he drove across a double yellow line into oncoming traffic and …

In this Article:

Former Little Silver Principal's Family Denied Accidental Death Benefits and Tinton Falls Man Pleads Guilty to Involuntary Manslaughter in Death of Little Silver Principal

Saturday, May 5, 2012

IN MEMORIAM: Don E. Merce

We will never forget that ordinary Tuesday morning when everything changed and we were reminded of how precious life is.

On the morning of May 6, 2008, I walked into my house from the gym to find my phone ringing in the kitchen. On the other end was another Little Silver mom, asking me if I had heard about the accident. I quickly hung up and called the school board office to confirm and rushed over to Markham to find a cluster of other mothers standing in the school's vestibule. We stood there, shell schocked, as our children were called out of their classrooms and fed out to us in the hallway. My girls, who were in 5th and 8th grade at the time, exploded through the doors and we all stood there with our arms around each other and cried -- for our principal, our school and ourselves and all that we had lost. Don Merce was a legend in Little Silver. Across …

In this Article:

Markham Place Middle School

Ed Fenton

11:13 am on Thursday, May 10, 2012

I appreciate this article as a former LS BOE member and a friend of Don Merce & his family. With the kind assistance of Arnold Natali, Bobbi is still trying to obtain survivor pension benefits from the NJ Pension system. In addition, the driver that killed Don plead guilty in Federal Court & is awaiting his sentence. Ed Fenton   more ›

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