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Juror: Panel Divided, Anguished Over LaPointe's Responsibility

October 01, 2008 - PORTLAND -- The jury that convicted Robert LaPointe of operating a boat under the influence was sharply divided over just how responsible he was for the crash that killed two people on Long Lake last summer.

At the outset of deliberations, eight members of the jury felt strongly that LaPointe should be convicted of manslaughter, but four were adamant that the state had not proved its case, said one of the jurors who sat through two weeks of intense testimony and arguments. After hours of sometimes contentious debate, jurors remained fixed in their positions.

"It's been the toughest two weeks of my entire life," said juror Joe Ouellette.

"Making the decision about someone's future, and obviously, Suzanne (Groetzinger) and Terry (Raye Trott) were killed. How do you justify either way? You're not supposed to get emotionally involved, but we're all human. We really are.

"This is what the four were thinking: How do you blame someone for a tragic accident?" said Ouellette, one of those who voted not to convict LaPointe of manslaughter but who sided with the others in convicting him of aggravated operating under the influence in a watercraft.

The absence of a stern light on Trott's boat was a key part of the deliberations.

"The bottom line is, we didn't want to put blame on Trott's boat, but how many boats did (LaPointe) hit with the light on?" Ouellette said.

"Two people have already died. How do two wrongs make a right?"

The jury split on the two manslaughter charges and on a charge of reckless conduct with a dangerous weapon.

On the latter, several jurors reasoned that being guilty of reckless conduct with a dangerous weapon would automatically suggest manslaughter.

The jurors listened to hours of testimony, with wardens, accident reconstructionists and others painting a picture of an unsafe boater, heavily intoxicated and driving much too fast in the darkness of the lake that night.

Jurors heard form defense witnesses who raised questions about much of the state's evidence, about how much LaPointe had to drink and about how fast he was really going.

When they retired to the jury room to discuss the evidence, the jurors had a large sheet on which they listed the facts they could agree on.

"No one was really sure how much he had to drink," Ouellette said. LaPointe claimed he had three beers that day, which jurors did not believe, but there were questions among some of them about the reliability of the blood sample, which showed an alcohol content of 0.11 three hours after the crash.

Jurors could agree that LaPointe drank somewhere between four and six beers over the course of the day, Ouellette said.

They were unpersuaded by a nurse's testimony that LaPointe asked her to substitute her blood for the test, because the nurse did not remember other key details, Ouellette said.

They also did not have a precise sense of how fast LaPointe's boat was going at the time of the collision. They reasoned that it was somewhere between the 30 mph LaPointe said and the 55 mph that accident reconstructionists proposed, Ouellette said.

Then the jurors had to consider the wording of the law.

Ouellette said the law on aggravated drunken operation states that a boater with any alcohol impairment is guilty of aggravated operating under the influence if a serious injury or death result. Even if LaPointe had very little to drink, it would be hard to say he was not at all impaired, Ouellette said, noting that even social drinkers could find themselves in a similar situation.

To convict LaPointe of manslaughter, the jurors would have to agree that his behavior was a gross deviation from the conduct a reasonable person would follow under the same circumstances.

"What's a gross deviation?" Ouellette said.

Determining what a reasonable speed is would depend on the conditions and who was at the wheel. In LaPointe's case, he had 15 years of boating experience and was traveling down the middle of the lake. It was night, but he could expect that other boats would have lights or some horn or whistle to alert people to their presence, Ouellette said.

Jurors were friendly with each other during the trial, Ouellette said, but once their differences became clear during deliberations, arguments became heated and animosity set in, he said.

"When the majority talked to the minority, they would talk down to us like we were not intelligent," he said.

By Wednesday afternoon, tempers were short. Some members were in tears because LaPointe was not convicted of manslaughter.

The judge complimented the jury for its work, saying members asked good questions and functioned as the system intended, Ouellette said.

By DAVID HENCH, Staff Writer September 25, 2008





Friends, Neighbors Differ in Responses to Verdict

By M. DIRK LANGEVELD, Lewiston Sun Journal September 26, 2008

NAPLES — Business owners and others in this community expressed mixed reactions Thursday to Robert LaPointe's conviction on drunken driving charges.

Jim Allen, owner of the Naples Marina, said he knew all four people involved in the Aug. 11, 2007, accident in which LaPointe's twin-engine, 32-foot craft ran over a 14-foot motorboat at night on Long Lake, killing Terry Raye Trott, 55, of Harrison and Suzanne Groetzinger, 44, of Berwick.

LaPointe, 39, of Medway, Mass., and Bridgton, and his passenger, 19-year-old Nicole Randall, then of Harrison, were thrown from his boat and swam to shore.

On Wednesday, jurors found LaPointe guilty of two counts of aggravated operating under the influence, each punishable by up to five years in prison. The jury was deadlocked on two counts of manslaughter and a single count of reckless conduct with a dangerous weapon.

"It was a tragedy, no matter what," Allen said. "It was a full-on tragedy."

"I feel bad for everybody involved," he said. "I feel very bad for Raye's family and Suzanne's family. Nobody went out there that night expecting to lose their life, and nobody went out there expecting to take a life.

"I feel bad for Robby, who's going to have to live with this the rest of his life," he said. "Nicole's going to have to live with this the rest of her life, and she was the innocent bystander in the whole thing."

Mike Bray, owner of Bray's Brew Pub and Eatery, where Groetzinger worked as a bartender and Trott was a regular customer and occasional musical performer, said he wished the jury could have decided on the remaining charges.

"It's a tragic thing that happened as it is, and nothing that really comes from this trial is going to bring back my friends," he said. "And somehow I feel with this hung jury thing it's not exactly going to bring closure to some of the family members either, which is a shame."

Bray said some of his staff had a hard time during the trial, which he says brought back memories of the accident.

"I know I've seen one of my bartenders just have to go out back for a little while just to get away from it," he said.

Vicki Davenport, wife of the owner of Long Lake Marina, said she did not think LaPointe has accepted responsibility for the accident. "You said he was drunk, how could you say he wasn't reckless?" she asked, referring to the jury's findings.

Jay Kent, a Naples resident who lives lakeside, said she would like LaPointe to serve some time in jail, and that a lenient sentence would be an invitation for reckless behavior on the lake. She also said some boats on Long Lake are nuisances. "Some of them are too big for the lake," she said. "They should be on the ocean."

Jim Allen's brother Scott, co-owner of Naples Marina, also knew all four people involved. He said LaPointe was taking the matter seriously.

"I know he's very, very upset about everything," he said. "I know a lot of people are judging him without knowing him. And obviously you feel for the two families who lost loved ones. It's tragic. It's just a tragic accident."

Rep. Richard Sykes, R-Harrison, said he will again push to change Maine boating laws after trying unsuccessfully to introduce horsepower and speed limits on Long Lake after the accident.

Sykes is also advocating mandatory education and a higher minimum age to operate a boat in Maine.

Sykes said he will likely revisit the education portions of the bill and is considering asking for speed limits instead of horsepower limits, which marina owners said would prohibit cabin cruisers and other slower boats with more horsepower.

Jim Allen said that people who drive performance speedboats such as LaPointe's are usually more experienced than other boaters and do not cause problems.

He said that since the accidents and the proposed laws, he has seen some positive changes on the lake.

"People appear to be more conscious at night," he said. "I think that people have quieted down their boats, and those were things that needed to happen. The boats themselves didn't need to go away. There were a couple of people who needed to modify how they drove their boats."

By DAVID HENCH, Staff Writer, Portland Press Herald, September 25, 2008


Lakes: Long Lake
Regions: Sebago


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