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Drunk and Reckless, or Tragic Boating Accident?

September 17, 2008 - PORTLAND -- Prosecutors and defense lawyers painted vastly different pictures of Robert LaPointe during opening statements Tuesday in his manslaughter trial, which will continue this morning in Cumberland County Superior Court with witnesses' testimony.

Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Norbert said LaPointe's reckless choices caused a fatal boat crash on Long Lake in Harrison around 9 p.m. Aug. 11, 2007. Terry Raye Trott and Suzanne Groetzinger were killed.

Norbert said LaPointe drank beer throughout that day. She said that at the time of the crash, his blood alcohol content was above the legal limit of 0.08 percent and he was driving at an unsafe speed of 45 mph or more.

She also said that LaPointe asked a nurse to substitute her blood for his own when he was tested three hours after the crash.

"The only proper and just verdict is a guilty verdict," Norbert said.

LaPointe's lawyer, J. Albert Johnson of Boston, first reminded jurors that LaPointe is entitled to a presumption of innocence. Johnson said prosecutors have the heavy burden of proving every element of their case beyond a reasonable doubt.

Johnson then told jurors that he plans to call at least a dozen witnesses who saw LaPointe at various times on the day of the crash, from 7 a.m. to just moments before it happened. Those witnesses, Johnson said, will testify that LaPointe was not intoxicated at any point on Aug. 11, 2007, and that he obeyed every boating safety rule.

"Everything he did was that of a sober individual," Johnson said. He referred to the crash as a tragic accident. "At all times, Mr. LaPointe operated that boat carefully and dutifully," Johnson said.

LaPointe, 39, of Medway, Mass., faces charges of manslaughter, aggravated drunken driving and reckless conduct with a dangerous weapon. Each count of manslaughter carries a maximum penalty of 30 years in prison. The trial is expected to last two weeks.

Tuesday's opening statements came after Superior Court Justice Robert Crowley denied the defense's motion to move the trial out of Cumberland County. Crowley had questioned the 12 jurors and three alternates who were chosen, to make sure they could serve impartially.

Johnson, along with his co-counsel, George Hassett of Boston and Neale Duffett of Portland, had argued that pretrial publicity made it impossible for LaPointe to get a fair trial in Portland.

District Attorney Stephanie Anderson, who is prosecuting the case with Norbert, argued to keep the trial here.

Norbert laid out a sequence of events in her opening statement. She said LaPointe spent most of Aug. 11, 2007, on his boat, a 32-foot Sunsation Dominator with twin 435-horsepower engines, named No Patience. Trott's boat was a 14-foot Glasspar runabout.

Norbert said that after drinking for much of the day, LaPointe tied up with friends to socialize for about an hour. He and his passenger, Nicole Randall, planned to take the boat to her parents' lakehouse for dinner, Norbert said.

The prosecutor said LaPointe saw Trott's boat pass and made a comment to Randall that the boat didn't have any lights on. LaPointe then throttled up, headed in the same direction and collided with Trott's boat, destroying it, Norbert said.

LaPointe and Randall were thrown into the water, and his boat continued across the lake, ending up about 150 feet into the woods on the slope of Bear Point.

Randall suffered a broken elbow, and LaPointe suffered minor injuries, Norbert said.

Johnson laid out the defense's version of events. He said LaPointe started his day by working on the property that he and his wife own on Long Lake and drinking Gatorade. He took a ride on his boat with two friends and then met two other friends for lunch at Rick's Cafe at the Naples causeway, Johnson said.

"Robert LaPointe ordered a beer but didn't drink it," Johnson told the jury. "You're going to hear that he drank a Sprite and had lunch."

Later in the day, LaPointe spent time on his boat, stopping to socialize a few times, Johnson said. Before the accident, LaPointe and Randall saw a smaller boat speed by them without any lights on, Johnson said. He said LaPointe was operating his boat with reasonable care when the collision happened.

LaPointe and Randall swam half a mile, climbed up onto a dock and walked about 600 feet up the shore afterward, Johnson said.

He said he plans on calling to the stand trained emergency responders who will say that LaPointe gave no indication of being intoxicated. Norbert plans to call other first responders who will testify that they smelled alcohol on LaPointe's breath.

The opening statements previewed another factual dispute that is expected to play a key role in the trial. Johnson said the blood sample taken from LaPointe is not reliable because it sat for 34 hours in a heated vehicle before it was tested at a state laboratory. Prosecutors will call experts to say that the test was reliable.

Tuesday ended with testimony from the state's first two witnesses.

John Douglas, a longtime boater who was at his family's camp on Long Lake on the night of the crash, said he heard the distinct engine patterns of two boats – and the thud of the collision – around 9 p.m. His testimony supported the state's theory that LaPointe's boat was traveling at the same speed before and after the collision with Trott's boat.

Allan Rosen-Ducat was outside his house on the eastern shore of the lake. He said he saw two boats on the water around 9 p.m. and was surprised to see a cigarette boat out that late at night, because they generally are used on the lake in the daytime.

Rosen-Ducat said he saw a smaller boat, apparently without proper navigational lights, pass the larger one at an estimated speed of 10-15 mph. The larger boat then accelerated in the same direction, beyond his line of sight.

Moments later, Rosen-Ducat said, he heard a sound like an engine blowing up. The normal throttle sound resumed, then Rosen-Ducat heard another sound of engine trouble in the vicinity of Bear Point.

By TREVOR MAXWELL, Staff Writer, Portland Press Herald, September 10, 2008


Lakes: Long Lake
Regions: Sebago


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