18 - CAPE GAZETTE, Friday, July 14 - July 20, 2000
'Fatal Attraction' captain says June 3 incident just an accident
By Michael Short
Early on June 3, the charter
fishing boat "Fatal Attraction"
ripped into the day marker at the
entrance to Roosevelt Inlet.
The 52-foot boat, on its way
back from Cape May, sustained a
fearsome wound, a gash estimated
at perhaps 15 feet by seven feet
tom into its fiberglass hull.
Captain Bill Bayard, an experi-
enced charter captain, guided the
sinking ship through Roosevelt
Inlet and ran it aground on the
marshes near Angler's Mai'ina to
save it from sinking in the Lewes-
Rehoboth Canal.
The boating accident, which oc-
cured around midnight, is docu-
mented.
But rumor and uncertainty have
swirled around almost every other
aspect of what happened that
night.
Bayard was charged with two
relatively minor offenses by state
fish and wildlife agents following
the incident and the U.S. Coast
Guard has said that he failed a
chemical test following the boat-
ing accident. That could ultimate-
ly lead to the loss of his captain's
license, the license the Coast
Guard requires for charter fishing
boat captains.
But Bayard said that the chemi-
cal test failure was due to pre-
scription drugs which can mimic
narcotics, specifically a common-
ly used antibiotic called amoxi-
cillin which can mimic the effects
of cocaine. He also said that when
notified that he had failed the test,
he immediately took another
chemical test and passed that test.
Bayard and his wife Donna say
that accident has since taken on
monstrous proportions in a small
town in which he said he has been
judged guilty until proven inno-
cent.
It's the downside of living in a
small town where everyone
knows everyone, the gossip that
they say has been hurtful and
most of all, untrue.
"I've been tried and found guilty
in the press already," Bayard said.
"It's plain as day why it tested
positive. I ran fight up there when
it tested positive because I knew it
could not be right."
A passenger on the boat, 48-
year-old John Doucette of Mills-
boro, suffered broken ribs and
was hospitalized for two days.
Bayard injured his knees and
shoulder.
Bayard freely admits to having
an accident, but he said the acci-
dent was a result of his radar
breaking within yards of Roo-
sevelt Inlet and rainy, windy,
weather conditions.
There were no drugs, he said.
There was no alcohol, he said. No
one was killed. The ship did not
sink.
Five boats moored in the canal
sustained minor damage caused
by his wake as he traveled quickly
to avoid sinking, he said. Rumors
had circulated that as many as 29
boats had sunk.
"It was an accident clear and
simple," he said.
"Bill is not a monster," Donna
Bayard said.
State fish and wildlife agents
charged him with two counts, one
of inattentive operation of a vessel
and one of not immediately re-
porting the injury of Doucette.
Both counts were heard in Jus-
tice of the Peace Court Two on Ju-
ly 12. In both cases, Bayard
pleaded to probation before
judgement and was given a year
of probation and fined a total of
$225.70.
The plea, is somewhat like a no
contest plea. It is neither an ad-
mission of guilt, nor is it an inno-
cent plea. It says that Bayard will
accept probation for a year and at
the end of the time, the record will
be wiped clean and there will be
no charges on his record.
Bayard said he called 911 when
the injury to Doucette occured
and he said that rather than inat-
tentive boating, electronic failure
and miserable weather caused the
accident. He accepted the plea just
to be done with the case, he said.
The Coast Guard investigation,
however, is far more serious. Lt.
Mike Kaszuba, an investigating
officer with the Philadelphia of-
fice of the Coast Guard, said that
Bayard has been served a com-
plaint which states that he failed a
chemical test.
He declined to elaborate on the
results, except to say that the test
did not show alcohol.
He has 30 days to respond to the
complaint and could potentially
lose his captain's license. Bayard
said he has medical documenta-
.tion that he was taking amoxi-
cillin and he produced a list of
prescription drugs that can mimic
illegal drugs, taken from a docu-
ment called "Pharmacology of
drugs and alcohol." That list in-
cluded amoxicillin.
Kaszuba said that if Bayard
challenges the finding and loses,
he could lose his license forever.
If he enters what is known as a
joint motion, then he would vol-
untarily go through rehabilitation,
take part in an outpatient program
and undergo several random drug
tests. If that occurs, he could have
his captain's license returned after
a year if be is judged to be of min-
imal risk.
But for now Bayard has his li-
cense. The boat is nearly repaired
and is better than ever thanks to
space age technology. Yellowfin
tuna are running and charters are
booked. He is confident he will be
vindicated in a Coast Guard hear-
ing, expected this fall. "People
have boating accidents all the
time. I didn't do anything wrong,"
he said.
The 3L's in Real Estate!
Location Location Location
and
List with Lou at Lingo's
Lou Cristaldi...Realtor
Office 227-3883 Jack Lingo Inc. Home 227-298,
E-MAIL; lou2beachaol.com
DeBraak
Continued from page 1
by piece and load it up for re-
moval to a concrete recycling op-
eration. The work will be done by
Design Contracting out of Wilm-
ington.
Massey said the permit for the
project will be issued Friday, July
14.
In addition to the fencing,
Massey said the demolition con-
tractor is also required to mount
blinking red lights on the fence to
warn people of the site at night. A
separate insurance policy is also
required for the demolition.
Ellis and his partner, Fran
Gonzon, have approval for seven
residential building lots on the site
which is in excess of an acre. To
be called DeBraak Preserve, the
lots, said Ellis, will be surrounded
by extensive landscaping to create
the appearance of a preserve. El-
lis said a few of the lots are under
contract for sale. He is the listing
agent for the lots being sold
Fish kill
Continued from page 16
But tests from the University of
Maryland showed no sign of Pfi-
esteria.
A second round of DNA test re-
sults from North Carolina labora-
tories were received late on
Thursday, July 13, and they also
showed no evidence of Pfiesteria.
Department of Natural Re-
sources and Environmental Con-
trol (DNREC) spokesperson
Melinda Carl said the second set
through the Prudential Gallo
agency.
The lots should be ready for
construction within six weeks,
said Ellis. "We had hoped to have
the building down long before
now, but it took us longer to get
everything in order than we had
thought. Our goal now is to get
the job done as quickly and with
as little disruption as possible to
the city."
Ellis said he is working on a
way to get water to the site so the
demolition can be watered down
occasionally during the process to
keep dust down.
The DeBraak shell, which has
never been occupied, was brought
to its present state of completion
in 1989.
The consortium of owners who
built the building that replaced the
original DeBraak Restaurant and
rooming house had plans for a
restaurant.
Those plans began to crumble
however with a dissolution of the
partnership and lack of consensus
from the town government as to
what would be allowed on the
of DNA results means that
DNREC is lifting its advisory is-
sued Monday, July 10, against
swimming, water skiing or other
primary contact recreation in Pep-
per Creek, the site of the most re-
cent fish kill.
On Wednesday, July 5, or early
Thursday, July 6, one million
dead menhaden were found in
Bald Eagle Creek and Torquay
Canal, an area at the extreme
northern end of Rehoboth Bay.
No lesions were found on those
fish and there were no recreation
advisories because Pfiesteria was
never suspected.
site.
The building has long been con-
sidered an eyesore and led to cre-
ation of the Commercial Architec-
ture Review Commission in
Lewes to ensure that all future
buildings are compatible with tho
community in size, shape and
style.
There have been a number of
efforts over the years to come up
with another use for the site. The
most serious was an attempt by a
partnership to develop a motel -
Dolphin Bay Resorts - on the site.
That proposal was approved by a
number of Lewes governmental
entities but was struck down by
Superior Court Judge Henley
Graves, who ruled that a zoning
variance sought for the motel had
been improperly granted.
Ellis and Gonzon looked at a
number of different options for
development of the Delaware
Bay-front site but opted to go
with a simple residential plan that
required no special permits or
variances and which they felt
would be most acceptable to the
community.
On Monday, July 10, approxi-
mately 50,000 juvenile menhaden
were found in Pepper Creek,
which is near Dagsboro. Some
showed evidence of lesions, but
test results have not indicated the
presence of Pfiesteria.
Division of Fish and Wildlife
official Roy Miller said that no-
other fish have been found dead
in either kill.
Two or more parts per million
of dissolved oxygen is usually
needed by fish to survive. Tests in
part of Pepper Creek showed oxy-
gen levels of less than one after
the fish kill.
645-8457
1-8OO-61 O-8457
I
" • . , sq.n.a0000a00on|
i:: ..... 100xISO Iot -- no sewer|
" . .... fees, no HOA fees! II
$137,000t I
PAUL TOWNSENO
CATCHES New Neighborhood /I
THE south of Lewes, overlooking II
HOME . L & R canal 188 single family
FOR lots with amenities water
available.
YOUI
JACK LINGO LEWES REALTOR
