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Man Charged in Death of Former CSOM Professor Kent Wosepka

On Dec. 15, Texas state troopers filed charges against the driver who struck and killed former Boston College adjunct professor Kent Wosepka while he was riding with a group of five other cyclists in East Texas, according to Chron

The driver, 66-year-old Michael Weaver, has been charged with criminally negligent homicide and will face up to two years in prison if convicted. It is unknown if Weaver has been arrested yet, according to ABC13

On Oct. 30, Weaver struck Wosepka and two of the other cyclists on Farm to Market Road No. 787, a highway outside of Houston, officials said. After the crash, Wosepka was transported to a nearby hospital and pronounced dead at about 1:20 p.m. the next day.

According to ABC13, Weaver told troopers investigating the crash that he is blind in one eye and has impaired vision in the other. Troopers said Weaver’s failure to control his speed led him to hit the cyclists while driving his Ford Escape. 

A diagram of the crash showed that Wosepka was the first of the cyclists to be hit by Weaver, according to Chron.

The other two cyclists who were hit, including Wosepka’s fiancée, Betsy O’Brien, were hospitalized with serious injuries, according to Chron. Weaver was not injured in the crash. 

Wosepka was an adjunct professor of finance at the Carroll School of Management. He taught graduate classes on management of financial institutions in CSOM through last semester, Finance Department Chair Ronnie Sadka said in a University release.

“Kent was a great guy and stellar teacher who was highly organized, and very popular with students,” Sadka said in the release. “He came to us after he retired from Goldman Sachs; right off the bat, he received fantastic teaching evaluations from his students. He stopped teaching in 2020 so that he could spend more time travelling, but he knew he could come back to teach here at any time. We extend our deepest condolences to his family and many friends.”

Featured Graphic by Annie Corrigan / Heights Editor

December 23, 2021