A Henniker District Court judge ruled there is probable cause to move forward in the case of the 22-year-old Henniker man accused of killing Hopkinton police officer Sean Powers.

Jeffrey Dennis is facing two charges of negligent homicide, one charge of aggravated driving while intoxicated and one charge of conduct after an accident. Sean Powers, 24, was riding his motorcycle back to his home in Hillsboro after his shift at the Hopkinton Police Department at round 1:30 a.m. on Thursday, Aug. 14.

He was travelling west-bound on Route 202/9 in Henniker, said State Police Troop D Capt. Russell Conte, when Jeff Dennis, 22, of Henniker hit him from behind.

When Dennis’ 1992 BMW struck Powers’ Harley Davidson, Powers was thrown into the road where he was inadvertently struck a second time by a Honda Civic traveling westbound. The driver of the Honda is not being charged in the accident.

After hitting Powers, Dennis and a passenger, now identified as Adam Kowalski of Henniker, fled the accident scene. Both were found within several hours, according to police.

Kowalski is not facing any charges at this point, and has been cooperating with the investigation. Dennis and Kowalski had allegedly been drinking at Chen Yang Li in Bow prior to the accident.

Henniker District Court Judge Brackett Scheffy ruled there was probable cause to proceed with the charges against Dennis at a hearing on Tuesday, Aug. 26. Scheffy also continued Dennis’ bail at $500,000 cash only.

The case now goes up to Merrimack County Superior Court for trial. A date has not been set.

Dennis has several DWIs on his record, and has allegedly left the scene of two other accidents in the past.

Powers had just joined the Hopkinton police force in April 2008, and having completed his field training, was about to enter the police academy.

Prior to that, Powers served two tours of duty in Iraq, one from August 2004 to March 2005 and another from September 2006 to April 2007, and came back unscathed.

Powers graduated from Hillsboro- Deering High School in 2002 and joined the Marines. He was based at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina for his entire Marine career, outside of his two deployments.

Hopkinton Police Chief David Wheeler said his department has kept in close contact with the family since Powers’ death.

“They’ve certainly risen to the occasion. They’re working through things in a very positive way, and they’ve been in communication with the family continuously,” Wheeler said of his officers. “I think that’s been very positive both for them and the family.”

He added while the Hopkinton police are in no way involved in the Merrimack County Attorney’s Office investigation into the crash, the Hopkinton police are hoping the process will work in this case.

“Our hope is that the justice system does what it’s intended to do,” Wheeler said.