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A local prosecutor filed a total of 63 criminal charges against three employees on Friday for a tourist boating accident in July 2018 on a lake in Missouri that left 17 people dead.
Charges were filed in Stone County against the captain, general manager and duty manager on the day of the accident for the Ride the Ducks attraction on Table Rock Lake near the tourist mecca of Branson.
The charges against Captain Kenneth Scott McKee, of Verona, General Manager Curtis Lanham, of Galena, and Duty Manager Charles Baltzell, of Kirbyville, came seven months after a federal judge dismissed the charges brought by the federal prosecutors, finding they lacked jurisdiction.
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McKee faces 29 counts, including 17 counts of first degree manslaughter. An affidavit from a Missouri Highway Patrol sergeant accuses him of failing to perform his duties as a licensed captain by taking his amphibious vehicle out onto the lake during a thunderstorm.
“We are reviewing the charges, are waiting for not guilty pleas to be entered and will continue to vigorously represent Mr. McKee,” JR Hobbs and Marilyn B. Keller, who represent the captain, said in a statement.
Baltzell and Lanham each face 17 counts of first degree manslaughter. They are accused of not having communicated the weather conditions and of not having ceased their operations during a severe thunderstorm warning.
Attorneys for Baltzell and Lanham did not immediately return a phone message asking for comment.
The charges were announced by County Attorney Matt Selby and Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt. Thirty-one people were on board when the duck entered the lake. A storm suddenly arose and the waves overwhelmed the boat before it could reach shore.
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Fourteen people survived. The dead included nine members of the same Indianapolis family. The other victims were from Missouri, Illinois and Arkansas.
Rides on the lake in an old modified WWII vehicle were once a popular draw in the Branson area of southwest Missouri. Ripley Entertainment, who owned the former WWII vehicle, settled 31 lawsuits related to the sinking.
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