The driver of the car in an accident that killed Binghamton University student Willie Poon Saturday, May 3, is awaiting the date of his next court appearance.

Rolyden C. Liu was charged with vehicular manslaughter and driving while intoxicated, after the 2001 Acura MDX he was driving went off the roadway and struck a tree around 11 p.m. on Friday, May 2. Poon was pronounced dead at 2:55 a.m. on Saturday at the Cayuga Medical Center after suffering a serious head injury, according to police.

Poon and Liu were members of the same fraternity, Lambda Phi Epsilon.

After Poon’s death, Liu was arraigned and sent to Tompkins County Jail in lieu of a $25,000/$50,000 cash/bond bail. He was released from jail that Saturday morning.

The car, which was carrying four passengers, including Poon, was traveling east on Route 79 in Tompkins County a quarter mile before the Tioga County line when it hit a tree, police said. The group was heading back from Ithaca where they had attended festivities in celebration of Cornell University’s Slope Day, an annual end-of-classes gathering.

According to Gwen Wilkinson, district attorney for Tompkins County, Liu waived his right for his preliminary hearing, which was scheduled for last Tuesday. Generally the preliminary hearing is held if the accused is still in jail, she said.

The DA’s office is working with Liu’s lawyers to arrange a date for his arraignment with counsel in the Town of Caroline, Wilkinson added. Liu was arraigned without counsel shortly after Poon’s death, but must be arraigned with the presence of a lawyer before the case can proceed to the indictment phase.

Whether Poon’s family requests that charges be dropped against Liu would not make much of a difference in terms of the case, according to Wilkinson, but could possibly have an effect on Liu’s sentencing if he were found guilty.

”When we have crimes like a DWI and vehicular manslaughter, we can’t really say that the only interests we have to protect are those of the victim’s family,” she said.

Still, Wilkinson said the family’s wishes could come to the surface during the case.

“The feelings of the family have to be heard by the court; they’re entitled to be heard by the court before a sentence is passed,” she said.

Capt. Derek Osborne of the Tompkins County Sheriff’s Office said Friday that no new charges had been brought against the driver or anyone else, and that no new evidence had been found.

He called the investigation “pretty cut and dry” because it was a one-car accident, and added that the case is still under investigation only because his agency is awaiting blood results which will determine Liu’s blood alcohol level. The results could take anywhere from two weeks to two months to come back.

Osborne wasn’t sure if a medical examination was done on Poon’s body, and said that the decision was up to the victim’s family and the medical examiner, who could not legally comment on the case.

According to police, Liu said he may have fallen asleep at the wheel or drifted off, and because there were no skid marks on the road to indicate speeding, Osborne said he had no reason to believe Liu was lying.

Poon was not wearing a seat belt, Osborne said, adding that he was not required to by law because he was in the backseat of the car.