Tennessee Towboat Captain Indicted
The Waterways Journal
21
February 2011
The operator of a towboat involved in an incident in June in which two
fishermen lost their lives was indicted for criminally negligent
homicide by a federal grand jury February 9 in Tennessee.
The indictment named towboat operator Warren Luetke, 39, as criminally
negligent. Luetke was operating the mv. Bearcat, owned by
Chattanooga-based Serodino Inc., when the 647-foot three-barge tow
collided with the fishing boat. A third man, David Wilkey, 37, was
injured but survived. Tim Spidle, 45, of Elizabethton, Tenn., and
Richard Wilkey, 52, of Soddy-Daisy, Tenn., were killed in the June 19
incident on the Tennessee River in Chickamauga Lake as they were
fishing from the 1977 16-foot boat Glastron.
In December, Serodino filed papers in U.S. District Court denying all
liability. Serodino's attorneys say the incident "was proximately
caused and/or contributed to solely by the actions and/or negligence of
Richard Wilkey, Tim Spidle, David Wilkey and others, for which Serodino
has no legal liability," according to The Chattanoogan.
Investigators with the Tennessee Wild-life Resources Agency consulted
with the Hamilton County district attorney's office for six months
before criminal charges were filed.
On June 26, 2009, the Bearcat was involved in a collision on Watts Bar
Lake that resulted in the death of fisherman Jones Bower Bare, 53, of
Trap Hill, N.C. Another man, not Luetke, was operating the Bearcat at
the time. A grand jury in that case declined to recommend any charges.
Bare's family filed a civil lawsuit against Serodino asking $5 million
in compensatory damages that is still ongoing.