MIAMI – Several days after police filed an arrest report in her case, model Maecee Marie Lathers faced a Miami-Dade County judge on multiple felony charges Friday morning after police said she tried to walk away from a crash she caused in downtown Miami that left two people dead the prior weekend.
Lathers, 24, of Miami Gardens, wasn’t even supposed to be driving at the time of the crash Saturday, according to Miami police. She told officers she was under the influence of a party drug known as “pink cocaine” at the time of the crash, authorities allege.
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Judge Mindy Glazer did not mince words in Friday’s court appearance, calling Lathers “an absolute danger to the community.”
Prosecutors raised the specter of charging her with DUI manslaughter pending a toxicology report.
Lathers’ Instagram profile shows her in various poses, lists her affiliation with two modeling agencies and, using various emojis, declares that she has “(money) on my (brain),” describing herself as a “d(o)pe in real life,” using a smiling, tongue-out emoji in place of the “o.”
Her photos typically depict her wearing revealing tops. On Friday, she appeared in front of Glazer in a green anti-suicide vest. Her attorney, Martez Gordon, appeared remotely.
Police said Lathers, driving a Mercedes-Benz sedan, was speeding south on North Miami Avenue just after 6:45 a.m. Saturday when she blew a red light at Eighth Street and slammed into a black Range Rover driven by a 24-year-old man.
Both vehicles then collided with a Suzuki sedan with three people inside, police said.
The rear passenger of the Suzuki died at the scene while its driver died at Jackson Memorial Hospital, the arrest report states.
Lathers and the Range Rover driver were also injured, according to police. She had been in JMH for treatment awaiting her court appearance.
Authorities said bystanders had to grab her and bring her back to the scene and, according to an arrest report, her license had been suspended since January.
In open court, Glazer read what was, until Friday, a publicly-redacted portion of Lathers’ arrest report detailing her statement to police after the crash.
“She advised she was under the influence of tusi, a known party drug, and that she was from the future and had a crystal ball,” Glazer read.
Tusi, or 2C, is described in a 2023 medical journal article as “a new ketamine concoction” also known as “pink cocaine.” That same year, Local 10 News produced a special report on the “nightclub narcotic,” said at the time to be the number one drug seized at Miami International Airport.
WATCH: Maecee Lathers’ full court appearance
In bond court Friday, prosecutors called Lathers, originally from Fort Plain, New York, a “potential flight risk” owing to the seriousness of the current — and likely future — charges. They argued for a $500,000 bond.
“It looks like, based on the results of the toxicology, we’re likely going to charge her with DUI manslaughter,” a prosecutor said in court. “It does appear that she was under the influence of controlled substances at the time of the incident based upon her statements (and) her vomiting.”
Gordon called the $500,000 bond request “unreasonable.”
“She doesn’t pose a danger to the community. She’s a college graduate. She’s been in the state of Florida, your honor, for over almost two years,” he said. “So I don’t think that there’s anything to suggest that she’s a flight risk.”
Glazer found probable cause to charge Lathers with eight felonies, including two counts of leaving the scene of a crash causing death. She ordered that Lathers be placed on house arrest if she posts a reduced $140,000 bond and ordered her not to drive.
The judge’s parting words were stern.
“She’s an absolute danger to the community based on killing or driving when she shouldn’t have been in a car and she’s clearly impaired based on her statements,” Glazer said. “And if it wasn’t for the citizens or witnesses nearby who stopped her, she would have completely fled.”
Lathers remained in the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center as of Friday, according to online jail records.