A Suffolk County grand jury indicted 40-year-old Lawrence Shieh of Boston on involuntary manslaughter and boating-under-the-influence charges in the May crash that killed 24-year-old Elizabeth Dankert of Andover. Prosecutors say his blood-alcohol level was more than twice the legal limit.
What prosecutors allege happened
According to the district attorney, Shieh met Dankert and two friends after his own companions left the ReelHouse, and persuaded them to come on a boat ride. He took a vessel from a Seaport dock as a member of the Freedom Boat Club, despite club rules prohibiting boating at night. Prosecutors allege he was dancing and taking his hands off the wheel before the boat slammed into a pier near a Logan Airport runway on May 13. Dankert died of a fracture to the back of her skull. Two of her friends were injured.
The charges
The indictment covers one count of involuntary manslaughter, one count of operating a boat while intoxicated causing death, two counts of operating while intoxicated causing serious bodily injury, one count of using a boat without authority, and a Logan Airport security violation. Shieh has pleaded not guilty.
Why boating OUI is treated differently than driving
Most people understand drunk driving law well and boating law barely at all, which is part of why cases like this recur. Recreational boating generally requires no license in the way driving does, alcohol is far more normalized on the water than in a car, and there are no lane markings, traffic signals, or brakes. Massachusetts sets the same 0.08 threshold for operating a vessel as for a motor vehicle, and the penalties for causing death are comparably severe. The two additional counts here, taking the boat without authority and the airport security violation, reflect circumstances specific to this case: a club vessel used outside permitted hours, in restricted water beside an active runway.
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