Former television anchor Tolly Carr is expected to walk out of a Guilford prison Monday a free man, having served just over two years for running over and killing Casey Bokhoven in a drunken-driving incident in 2007.
As he completes probation and tries to rejoin society, Carr faces some of the usual challenges of being a felon, along with the uncommon task of rebuilding a public reputation.
Carr had been a homegrown role model -- he attended Winston-Salem State University, where he would later teach, and worked his way up the ladder at WXII-TV over seven years to become one of the station's morning anchors.
People familiar with television media work said that Carr's celebrity status will continue to raise questions about whether he has shown publicly that he takes responsibility for his actions.
"Tragedies like these take their toll first and foremost on the victims and their families -- and then on the lives of those high-profile individuals who have committed them," said Jill Geisler, the leadership and management leader at Poynter, a school for journalists.
"Unlike many other ex-offenders, he is a public figure," she said, "and no doubt a lightning rod for criticism because of the magnitude of his crime."
Carr declined an interview request for this story; so did Bokhoven's family.
"This is the first time I've mentioned his name in how long," said Sean Bokhoven, Casey's brother. "It's about Casey, for us."
Casey Bokhoven, 26, was walking home from an evening out with friends in the early morning of March 11, 2007, when Carr's pickup truck left the road on First Street and went airborne, landing on Bokhoven. Carr had driven around a roadblock and into a construction zone, then he weaved down the uneven road until he lost control. A passenger in his pickup was seriously injured.
Earlier that night, Carr had gone bar-hopping downtown with friends.
A toxicology report estimated that he had between 12 and 22 drinks that night, and that his blood-alcohol content when he was driving was nearly two to three times the legal limit of 0.08.
Since pleading guilty to felony death by motor vehicle and felony serious injury by motor vehicle in August 2007, Carr has also settled a civil lawsuit filed by the Bokhoven family. The settlement keeps undisclosed the amount of the payments that Carr will make starting in May 2010. Several bars sued also reached confidential settlements.
When he pleaded guilty in the criminal case, Carr said he realized that it was unfair that he has a life to rebuild. Bokhoven was a chef at Forsyth Country Club and had been accepted in culinary school.
"Casey had a lot to offer the world," Carr said.
"I should be the one who's dead. I shouldn't be the one who's here breathing the air in the courtroom."
Carr has been in the Guilford Correctional Center in McLeansville since February 2008.
He has not been on work release. He had no infractions in prison, and was working in the prison's library, said Keith Acree, a spokesman for the Department of Correction.
Since September 2008, Carr has been able to spend up to six hours in the community, three times a week, as long as he is supervised by a volunteer. Bill Bailey, a friend of Carr's and an official at the local Urban League, has been Carr's volunteer supervisor.
Locke Clifford, one of Carr's attorneys, said he didn't know what kind of work Carr would try to find. "I suspect he'll be wide open," he said.
Promoting awareness on drunken driving may be an option, or low-profile work in media, such as writing or producing, said Geisler of the Poynter Institute. But, she said, anyone who hires him will have to weigh the risk of controversy.
■ Dan Galindo can be reached at 727-7377 or at dgalindo@wsjournal.com.
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