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Passenger now charged with slicing that woman's arm off on ill-fated Boston Harbor cruise
By adamg on Wed, 06/24/2015 - 6:19pm
A passenger on board Benjamin Urbelis's Naut Guilty on May 30 was arraigned today on charges he negligently started the boat up while Urbelis was in the water - and destroyed evidence that might have been related to the way he allegedly steered the boat right at a woman in the water, slicing her arm off.
Alexander Williams, 24, of the West End, was also charged with providing alcohol to minors - the women on the boat were all under 21.
Boston Municipal Court Judge Cathering Byrne set bail at $5,000.
At his arraignment, Assistant District Attorney Nicole Rimar gave this account:
Williams and others were onboard the 30-foot Chaparral vessel "Naut Guilty" with several other individuals, including the boat's owner, Benjamin P. Urbelis of Charlestown. The boat was shut off and anchored the area of the southwest corner of Spectacle Island when a 19-year-old female left the boat and had trouble re-boarding. Williams allegedly restarted the vessel and maneuvered it toward the young woman, Rimar said. As a result, her arm was traumatically amputated by the boat's propeller.
The DA's office continued:
Boston Police detectives obtained a warrant to search Williams' phone, which was believed to contain evidence related to the incident. Detectives were approached by an attorney representing Williams in the area of Williams' Longfellow Place residence this morning and were allowed into the residence while Williams retrieved the phone.
Just prior to handing the phone to police, however, Williams allegedly deleted all of its content. Detectives observed that the phone was in "restore factory settings" mode when provided by Williams; a subsequent forensic examination of the phone revealed that its entire contents had been erased.
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Comments
perhaps
the worst part about this story is that the owner of the boat made the wrong pun
Actually...
...I think the worst part is that the owner was in the water and had to watch some idiot start an anchored boat and watch it spin around the line. I have no idea what the law is here, but it seems that the owner might have a lot less culpability than first assumed. Oh, before everyone goes all "under 21" the guy was 24.
Yes, the owner
certainly has painted himself as the one deserving sympathy here.
"Under 21"
According to the Globe's 6/8 story:
"On board Urbelis’s 29-foot boat that day were four men in their 30s, including Urbelis, and nine women ages 19 to 22."
I assume that this part refers to the 24 year old:
"A police report also listed a teenage boy as a passenger, though a Boston police spokesman on Monday said that that was probably the result of a typographical error. A man with the same name is identified on Urbelis’s Instagram account, where he appears in photos both outside court and on the Naut Guilty, as Urbelis’s law intern. Public records indicate the man was born not in 1999 but in 1990."
Agreed.
Reminds me of when the Lobsta-I sank in '78. Nothing like news anchors having to say "Lobsta" with serious expressions.