A judge denied a Boalsburg man's request Friday to drop homicide and manslaughter charges in connection with his alleged role in the death of a Penn State professor.

Thomas B. Fry, 51, is charged with homicide by vehicle, involuntary manslaughter, reckless and careless driving, and disregarding a traffic lane.

According to court documents, Fry's vehicle struck the bicycle of Bohdan Kulakowski, 63, a Penn State mechanical engineering professor, on Boalsburg Road in March 2006.

Kulakowski died at the scene from internal chest trauma.

During Fry's preliminary hearing last June, two State College doctors testified that Fry was diagnosed with a degenerative eye disease in the 1980s and should not have been driving.

However, the doctors did not report the condition to PennDOT, according to court documents.

Fry said neither PennDOT nor a doctor had told him that was not allowed to drive because of his eye condition.

In September, Fry's attorney, Ron McGlaughlin, filed a motion.

He asked that the charges of homicide by vehicle and involuntary manslaughter be dismissed.

McGlaughlin argued in the motion that there was insufficient evidence to prove his client was "reckless or grossly negligent," according to court documents.

To establish a case for the involuntary manslaughter charge, the Commonwealth must prove Fry knew about his degenerative eye condition, drove in spite of it and was reckless or grossly negligent for doing so, according to court documents.

For the homicide by vehicle charge, the Commonwealth must show there was evidence that Fry was carelessly driving and that his driving was a "direct and substantial factor" in Kulakowski's death, according to court documents.

On Friday, Judge David Grine wrote that the Commonwealth had met its initial burden of proof, according to court documents. Grine denied Fry's motion, allowing all charges to continue to be bound over for trial.

"A jury could properly infer that a person's decision to drive in spite of the existence and acknowledgement of a degenerative eye condition constitutes a conscious disregard of a substantial and unjustifiable risk that a person's death could result from such conduct," Grine wrote.

Fry's trial is scheduled for next month.