BY JENNY PAUL
A retired Harvard Law School professor has been cited with motor vehicle homicide in connection with a July collision that killed a Northampton woman, prosecutors announced Wednesday.
Detlev Vagts, 81, of Cambridge, was allegedly driving a car that struck Marcia Kearney, 54, while she was riding her Vespa along Ward Street in Newton, according to a press release from the district attorney’s office.
A court date has not yet been set.
According the DA’s office, police investigators have said that Vagts’ vehicle was partially in the opposing traffic lane when it hit Kearney from behind as she was making a left turn. After the crash, the defendant drove an additional 448 feet before traveling back to the location of the collision, the DA’s office said.
Vagts, who is the Bemis Professor of International Law Emeritus, taught at Harvard Law School for 46 years before retiring in 2005. He is a graduate of Harvard College (1948) and Harvard Law School (1951).
In May, Vagts spoke out regarding former Dean Elena Kagan’s confirmation to the Supreme Court, telling National Public Radio that he was not a “Kagan fan.”