KANSAS CITY, Mo. — All criminal charges have been dropped against three duck boat employees who took a boat on the lake ahead of a storm in Branson in 2018 that produced up to 73 miles per hour winds, sinking the sightseeing vessel and resulting in the deaths of 17 people.
Judge Alan Mark Blankenship in a decision filed Tuesday afternoon determined there was not sufficient evidence to uphold the charges. The case has been dismissed without prejudice.
On July 19, 2018, 31 people, including children, and Robert “Bob” Williams, the duck boat driver, boarded Stretch Duck No. 7 on Table Rock Lake under a clear sky. Midway through the water tour, as a severe storm system approached, the boat began battling waves nearly 4 feet tall.
The duck boat went under, taking with it five children and nine members of the same family from Indianapolis who were vacationing, in a tragedy that drew national attention and shuttered the amphibious tourist attraction for now.
Boat captain Kenneth “Scott” McKee, 54; Curtis P. Lanham, 39, the general manager at Ride the Ducks in Branson; and Charles V. Baltzell, 79, the operations supervisor who was acting as a manager on duty that night, were criminally charged in the sinking last July.
The defendants each faced 17 counts of first-degree involuntary manslaughter, a felony. McKee, who was steering the boat when it sank, additionally faced 12 counts of first-degree endangering the welfare of a child, also felonies. Twelve children under the age of 17 were on the duck boat when it capsized.
Attorneys for the defendants have long urged Blankenship to drop all charges against their clients, blaming instead uncertain weather radars and an unusual weather event.
The judge in his decision cited the approaching wind gusts, which were invisible to the naked eye, and the unique characteristics of the stretch boat, which made it more susceptible to rough waters.
“In hindsight, it is evident the defendants did not have enough weather information to appreciate the threat of high winds,” Blankenship wrote Tuesday.
Attorneys for all three defendants have argued that despite the tragic nature of the sinking, the decisions leading up to the ship’s watery demise did not constitute a crime because the defendants did not intentionally or knowingly choose to put their passengers in mortal danger.
On Tuesday, Blankenship agreed.
“The court feels great sadness for this needless loss of life, and the impact on the victims’ family and friends,” Blankenship concluded, ending the case.
Stone County Prosecuting Attorney Matt Selby told The Star he was disappointed in the decision.
Attorneys for a number of the victims’ families could not immediately be reached for comment Tuesday afternoon. A spokeswoman for Ripley Entertainment, the company that owns the Ride the Ducks in Branson, said in a statement that they continue to support their current and former employees.
Attorney J.R. Hobbs, who represents McKee, and attorney Tom Bath, who represents Lanham, told The Star in a joint statement that they respect the judge’s decision.
“This was a tragedy for all involved, but we don’t believe any further comment is appropriate at this time,” they said.
On that July day, unbeknownst to the captains and managers at Ride the Ducks, a severe thunderstorm warning had been issued for Table Rock Lake in southwest Missouri, and a meteorologist at a Springfield-based TV station was urging people to leave the lake immediately.
Blankenship pointed to the weather system the Ride the Ducks team relied on, called Earth Networks, saying that between that radar, which didn’t show the wind front, and the clear sky at the time, the staff was given the impression there was “sufficient time” complete the boat tour ahead of the storm reaching the lake.
But a manager at a nearby marina who was called by the state in December said he regularly checked about a dozen weather apps on his phone before sending boats out. While the Ride the Ducks staff said the storm took them by surprise, the neighboring manager said he was well aware of the strong wind gusts headed their way.
Selby, the prosecutor, argued that despite a written policy not to enter the water when severe weather was approaching, the managers and captain, who were in a position to cancel or delay the tour, decided to load the boat anyway.
When interviewed by law enforcement following the sinking, all three duck boat employees said the storm still looked far enough away when they made the choice to head out.
“The weather was great, and then all of a sudden it was chaos,” one officer testified Baltzell said.
In December, those gathered in the half-full courtroom received an elementary lesson on storms and wind gusts as a meteorologist called by the defense explained that while the National Weather Service Doppler can detect and show sudden wind changes, the Earth Networks display did not.
A few miles ahead of the storm were wind gusts that began churning up the water, producing waves up to 3-feet-7-inches tall, according to the meteorologist. At 7 p.m., when the winds arrived and minutes before the boat began to sink, the start of the heavy rain and lightning was still eight miles from the lake, according to the radar.
In the last several months, the state has argued that McKee should have asked his passengers to put on life jackets.
But Blankenship in his ruling disagreed.
McKee had the discretion to make a decision based on the circumstances, the judge wrote. He referenced a National Transportation Safety Board report examining the tragedy that concluded life jackets can increase the risk to passengers if there is an overhead canopy to become trapped beneath as it becomes submerged.
A maritime law expert previously testified that had everyone been wearing a flotation device when the rough water began, more people likely would have died, since in other similar accidents, passengers in life vests risked getting trapped beneath the roof canopy, sinking them with the boat.
On that fateful day, before greeting their next group of tourist, Baltzell noted reports of lightning near Springfield, about 40 miles away, and told McKee to deviate to the water first, to beat the storm. Typically the expedition first started on land.
The passengers of Stretch Duck No. 7 began boarding as “Don’t Worry be Happy” by Bobby McFerrin played from the speakers, according to a video recording of the trip that was played in court last year. Within the hour, the boat would sink.
Video from on board the boat, presented as evidence in court Wednesday, captured the shouting and squeals of the guests turn to hollers and screams over the course of about 30 minutes.
“You guys wanted an adventure and now you’re getting it,” McKee said in the similar jolly tone he’d used when they boarded. But he doesn’t say much more after. Instead he picked up the radio; what he said into it is indistinguishable. As the wind strengthened on the lake, McKee skipped the usual path of the water tour and headed straight for the exit ramp.
The boat started to sink at 7:09 p.m.
“They were really having trouble making headway to the north exit ramp,” testified an off-duty sheriff’s sergeant working a docked showboat on the shore.
As water filled the boat, McKee reached for the lever to raise the windows, which he had lowered when the waves began, so people could escape. He successfully pulled one of the two before the water pushed him out and over the front of the boat, others testified in court.
“Waves were coming in, and then all of a sudden it was gone,” the sergeant said, recalling as the boat sank beneath the water’s surface in Stone County, just over the Taney County line.
Tia Coleman and her nephew were the only members of their family who came out of the water alive. The other nine, including her husband, three children, mother-in-law, father-in-law, sister-in-law, niece, nephew and her uncle, were later buried.
Among the victims was also Williams, a couple from Higginsville celebrating their 45th anniversary, a couple from St. Louis, an Illinois woman who was taking her granddaughter on a special trip to Branson and a father and son from Arkansas.
Tuesday’s decision is the latest in a roller coaster of court decision related to the sinking.
A federal grand jury previously indicted the three men, but the indictment was dismissed in December 2020 when a federal judge in Springfield ruled that federal prosecutors did not have jurisdiction over the case because of the characteristics of Table Rock Lake, but conceded that state prosecutors could bring a case if they so decided.
The deaths also prompted a torrent of lawsuits against Ride the Ducks and Ripley Entertainment. They settled on confidential terms.
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