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RALEIGH (MCT) — The owners of a North Raleigh tavern said Tuesday that the plastic surgeon now facing second-degree murder charges was refused alcohol shortly before a collision Friday night that left a ballet dancer dead.

Billy McGee, a co-owner of The Piper's Restaurant and Tavern on Falls of Neuse Road, also said the doctor, Raymond Dwight Cook, turned down offers to arrange a ride home for him.

''We were led to believe someone else was driving," McGee said.

Cook, 42, is accused of driving drunk and at 85 mph, crashing into a vehicle driven by Elena Bright Shapiro on Strickland Road. Shapiro, an aspiring professional ballerina with the Carolina Ballet, was killed.

As Shapiro was buried in her native Winston-Salem on Tuesday, Cook surrendered his medical license and resigned from his job at WakeMed.

Prosecutors upgraded the initial charge of felony death by vehicle to second-degree murder on Tuesday. Cook also is charged with driving while impaired and reckless driving with wanton disregard.

After turning himself in to authorities, Cook was brought before a Wake County district court judge in an orange-and-white jail jumpsuit.

His wife, Gwynne, and other family members and friends sat quietly in the back of the courtroom as Jane Gray, the judge presiding over the proceedings, lowered Cook's bail from the $2 million set by a magistrate to $250,000. Gray said the $2 million was outside the traditional bounds for second-degree murder.

Roger W. Smith Jr., the Raleigh lawyer representing Cook, released a prepared statement from the accused shortly after the bond hearing.

''Today, in Winston-Salem, Elena Bright Shapiro is laid to rest," Cook's statement said. "My wife, parents and family join me in expressing our most profound sympathy to Ms. Shapiro's family. Yet, we understand that words can never take away the pain of her loss. ... Time might heal some things, but it will never take away this hurt and this loss."

By early Tuesday evening, Cook posted bond and was released from jail.

As part of an agreement with the state Medical Board, Cook will meet Friday with administrators of a physicians substance abuse program to begin whatever treatment plan they prescribe, Smith said.

Cook, a 1997 graduate of the UNC-Chapel Hill medical school and a Wake County resident since 2003, has a history of being accused of drunken driving.

In 1989, according to court records, he was charged with driving under the influence of alcohol in Camden County, Ga. Cook, who was an undergraduate at the University of Georgia, pleaded no contest to the charge, which means he did not admit guilt but accepted a guilty plea.

In 1988, in North Carolina, he was accused of driving while impaired in Forsyth County, where his parents lived in Winston-Salem and where he grew up. The prosecution of that charge was abandoned when no probable cause for the charge was found.

Wake County assistant district attorney Jeff Cruden declined to say why the most recent charge was upgraded to second-degree murder Tuesday. But under North Carolina law, when a death happens after a person willfully drives while impaired, someone can be accused of second-degree murder if there is evidence of malicious recklessness.

Police say Cook was traveling nearly twice the 45 mph speed limit on Strickland Road shortly after 8:30 p.m. Friday when his Mercedes-Benz crashed into Shapiro's Hyundai, which was turning right onto Strickland from Lead Mine Road. After being hit, Shapiro's car traveled 242 feet before coming to a stop on the other side of the road.

Although police and prosecutors are being tight-lipped about Cook's whereabouts in the hours before the accident, owners of Piper's Tavern confirmed that he had been in their establishment, which is less than three miles from the accident scene.

On Friday nights at Piper's, a guitarist typically plays Jimmy Buffett songs and other music from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. The menu includes steaks, chicken wings, pizzas and other family fare. Two TVs over the wooden bar show sporting events.

Cook arrived about 7 p.m. Friday, according to Jimmy Powers, another tavern co-owner.

''He was obviously intoxicated by the time he arrived," Powers said Tuesday. It's not clear where Cook had been before arriving at Piper's.

Powers said the doctor had a bill of $11.79 before leaving at about 8:15 p.m., after a restaurant manager refused to serve him alcohol. Powers would not reveal what Cook ordered but said the receipt had been turned over to police.

Piper's owners said they are cooperating with the investigation.

''This is just a tragedy all around," McGee said. "Our hearts and prayers are with the victim and her family."