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Passenger Recounts Run-Up to Boat Crash

September 17, 2008 - PORTLAND -- The only passenger aboard Robert LaPointe's boat at the time of a fatal collision on Long Lake in Harrison last year testified at his manslaughter trial Wednesday that a smaller boat with no navigation lights raced past them before the nighttime crash.

Nicole Randall, 20, of Bridgton, laid out what occurred in the hour before a collision between LaPointe's boat, a 32-foot Sunsation Dominator, and a 14-foot Glasspar.

The occupants of the smaller boat, Terry Raye Trott, 56, of Harrison, and Suzanne Groetzinger, 44, of Berwick, were killed in the Aug. 11, 2007, crash.

Wednesday marked the second day of testimony in the trial of LaPointe, 39, of Medway, Mass. He faces charges of manslaughter, aggravated drunken driving and reckless conduct with a dangerous weapon. The two counts of manslaughter each carry a maximum penalty of 30 years in prison.

Prosecutors contend that LaPointe's blood alcohol level was above the legal limit -- 0.08 percent -- and that he was operating his boat, equipped with twin 435-horsepower engines, at an unsafe speed of 45 mph or more at the time of the accident.

LaPointe's attorneys say that LaPointe was not intoxicated and that he obeyed every boating and safety rule.

Randall was one of several witnesses called by the state on Wednesday in Cumberland County Superior Court.

During occasionally teary testimony, Randall said she was with LaPointe because he offered to take her to find her parents on the lake around 8 p.m. Her parents, who own a marina in Bridgton and are friends with LaPointe, had offered to take Randall out earlier, but she declined because she had just gotten off work.

Randall said she and LaPointe met up with her parents shortly after 8 p.m. She said LaPointe had a beer in hand when he got onto her parents' pontoon boat and another during the 45 minutes or so the boats were "rafted" together.

Randall said her parents headed home shortly before 9 p.m., and she and LaPointe planned to follow on his boat. She said he received a cell phone call that delayed them for about 10 minutes, and then they were under way.

Shortly after, Randall said, a small boat came up from behind and passed LaPointe's craft. She said the runabout was going "a lot faster than we were," and attorneys noted that she told a Maine Warden Service official that the smaller boat was speeding along at "35-40-50 miles per hour."

It was several minutes after that boat passed before LaPointe "decided to take off" and speed up, Randall said.

Randall told LaPointe that the other boat didn't have any lights on, and he replied in a monotone, "The ... idiots with no lights on," she testified.

The issue of the lights on Trott's boat -- whether they were on and whether they met navigational standards -- is one of the factual disputes in the case.

In her opening statement Tuesday, Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Norbert said that when investigators recovered the shattered boat, the light switch was in the "on" position, and some witnesses reported seeing lights on Trott's boat before the crash.

But Norbert conceded that other witnesses will testify that the Trott boat did not have lights on at the time. Either way, Norbert said, LaPointe's culpability remains the same. He was operating while intoxicated and driving too fast at night to react to anything in his path, she said.

LaPointe's lawyer, J. Albert Johnson of Boston, also noted the issue of the lights in his opening statement. He said witnesses will testify that Trott's boat had no lights on prior to the crash.

The collision shattered the smaller boat. LaPointe and Randall were thrown in the water, and their boat slammed into the shore, its bow coming to rest 166 feet into the woods.

Other witnesses described the aftermath of the collision.

Susan E. Barton of Portland was at her family camp next to the lake at the time.

"It was just the loudest sound I heard in my life," she said.

LaPointe and Randall swam to her family's dock after the accident.

"They just looked like two people swimming. They were very calm," Barton said.

She said she then heard a woman saying, "'Here we are, we're here,' just as calm as could be."

When the two climbed on the dock, Barton said, LaPointe told her that "a boat had hit him and it didn't have lights on."

The trial is scheduled to resume today.

By EDWARD D. MURPHY Staff Writer, Portland Press Herald, September 11, 2008


Lakes: Long Lake
Regions: Sebago


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