Officers are to blame after a 'wasted' boater killed a D'Iberville man, Supreme Court rules
The Mississippi Supreme Court has reinstated an award of $500,000 to a D’Iberville mother who lost her son and to a second son permanently injured by a drunk boater on the Tchoutacabouffa River.
Circuit Court Judge Lisa Dodson found at the end of a 2014 trial that two officers with the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks acted with “reckless disregard” when they allowed boater Donald Bernius to continue operating his vessel after an initial stop on the river, where Bernius was speeding and driving recklessly.
The officers told Bernius to follow them from a curve into the river straightaway so they could examine him and the boat. Bernius was supposed to follow the officers in his boat. Instead, he turned 180 degrees and sped off in the opposite direction. He almost hit another boater before plowing into a boat driven by Christopher Webb, 24, in August 2009.
Webb died when the boat struck him and his brother, Shane Webb, who was 16 at the time. Shane Webb has permanent injuries from being struck in the head, Joe Sam Owen, the family’s attorney. Shane Webb’s medical bills alone stand at about $400,000, Owen said.
Read more here: http://www.sunherald.com/news/local/counties/harrison-county/article205508609.html