Obliviot of the Week #896
“I guess he thought it was a big joke,” said attorney Daniel L. Castillo about his client, Rick Ehlert, 45. Ehlert is “not denying he did it,” Castillo says, but what he did shouldn’t be considered a crime. He says Ehlert was drunk on a cruise ship headed for Tampa, Fla., when he broke into the control room and dropped the moving ship’s anchor, and then tossed a life buoy overboard — at 5:25 a.m. The captain stopped the ship and assembled all passengers and crew on deck for a head count. No one was missing. “Everybody was mad at him,” Castillo said, but “where’s the crime?” The crime, federal prosecutors say, is attempting to damage the ship — a statute that was strengthened after transportation-related terrorist attacks. Dropping anchor on a moving ship could damage it enough to cause it to sink. The 719-foot MS Ryndam holds 1,260 passengers and 580 crew, and all were put in grave danger. Prosecutors are only calling for probation, but Castillo is trying to get him off anyway, noting “an alcohol-induced reckless act does not necessarily equate to a violation of federal criminal statutes.” Also, Castillo added, “He’s got a lot of money.” (RC/Tampa Tribune) ...Oh, well, if he’s got money, then by all means: let him commit “alcohol-induced reckless acts” with impunity.Story Update: Ehlert was convicted and sentenced to four months in prison plus three years of probation, a $7,500 fine, and ordered to undergo drug and mental health counseling. Prosecutors pieced together that Ehlert had drunk around four glasses of wine, a glass of vodka, a quarter bottle of vodka, four single martinis, and four double martinis — and took an Ambien. All that booze and he still needed a sleeping pill?! That’s hard core!
Original Publication Date: 14 August 2011
This story is in True’s book collections, in Volume 18.
This story is in True’s book collections, in Volume 18.
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