brokedown
Cancer
Boater
Lake Elsinore
Posts: 191
APPD 0.02
Post Rank: 109
24' Vindicator
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Posted: May 24 2005,9:15 am |
Post # 1 |
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LAPD officer faces charges in boating crash
The man hit by the boat was in stable condition on Monday
By CLARISSA ALJENTERA
Herald Staff Writer
A Los Angeles police officer arrested in a boating accident at Lake San Antonio on Saturday may have been trying to avoid authorities after the crash, a sheriff's deputy said on Monday.
David Ernest Guzman, 31, a nine-year police veteran, was arrested on suspicion of driving a watercraft under the influence, hit-and-run driving of a boat and use of a watercraft with a blood alcohol level greater than .08 percent.
Guzman struck an 18-year-old with his 20-foot motorboat who was out on the lake with his friend riding on a Sea Doo personal watercraft. Guzman didn't stop to help, sheriff's deputies reported.
Jason Penalba of Agoura Hills, who was taken to UCLA Medical Center by helicopter, was in stable condition late Monday with injuries to his back, pelvis, liver and spleen, authorities said.
When Monterey County sheriff's deputies heard the call of the accident Saturday they went to the southern and northern shores of the lake near the boat launches to wait for Guzman, said sheriff's Cmdr. Tracy Brown.
As Guzman was headed into the south shore the deputies saw him staring at them when he turned the boat around, Brown said.
The Monterey County Parks Department had sent a boat onto the lake that found Guzman on his Ultra Custom boat, Brown said.
"It made it appear that he was trying to avoid contact,"
Brown said Guzman cooperated with authorities from the Monterey County Parks Department when he was found on his boat.
Witnesses who were interviewed by deputies said they had heard the crash and came over to help Penalba and Erik Shirey, 19, who was driving the Sea Doo. Guzman allegedly hit the back end of the Sea Doo and sped away. Shirey had cuts and scrapes and was treated and released at the lake.
Deputies later located Guzman's acquaintance, William Jeffers, with the boat trailer, Brown said. Jeffers was arrested on suspicion of driving the trailer under the influence and admitted to being on the boat, deputies said.
Guzman was most recently stationed at the Devonshire Community Police Station in Northridge for about a year, working in the patrol division, said a police spokeswoman.
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12-16-2025 Gas price in your area (Rep.#7,376) from: GoFastRacer
Regardless if the PWC'r made a stupid manuever in front of him, there is no excuse for operating a boat drunk 
