Bail set at $25,000 in Folly Rd. felony DUI case

A young father remains in a coma after another young man suspected of drunken driving hit him as he walked away from the Skinful Halloween party along Folly Road early Sunday.

Beau James Froehlich, a 25-year-old James Island man, suffered broken bones and a massive head injury, according to his father, Kenneth Froehlich. The older Froehlich appeared at a bond hearing Monday still wearing a pink "visitor" badge from Medical University Hospital's intensive care unit.

"Two lives have been changed, and these lives are changed forever," he said.

Magistrate Judge Linda Lombard set 31-year-old Summerville resident Matthew Fisher's bail at $25,000, the maximum allowed for a charge of second-degree felony DUI. Fisher's attorney, David Aylor, said his client stopped at a nearby fire station as soon as he realized he had hit a man walking near South Grimball Road shortly after 3 a.m. Sunday.

Aylor described his client as a master's degree student at S.C. State University working two jobs.

"This is an individual who is productive in society, who is in school, who is working and is doing the best that he can," Aylor said.

Froehlich said his son works as an electrician for a Hollywood company and cares for a 2-year-old son.

"There are two victims in this, my son and Mr. Matthew," Froehlich told the judge.

Froehlich instead placed blame with the event's organizers, calling Skinful a "sanctioned rave" set in "the darkest corner of Folly Road."

"It can't happen anymore," Froehlich said. "I will find out what I can do to stop it."

The event included 12 uniformed police officers and more than 20 undercover officers, plus security hired by both Skinful and the Brick House Kitchen, where part of the event took place, according to restaurant owners Christopher and Crystal Thomas. The event included four free shuttles for thousands of partygoers and an explicit warning on its website not to walk along the road since there are no sidewalks.

"When he made the decision to walk alongside the path, who does the responsibility fall to?" Crystal Thomas asked. She and her husband said they had been praying for both Froehlich and Fisher since the accident.

Reach Allyson Bird at 937-5594 or Twitter.com/allysonjbird.