Canoe rental owner guilty of obstruction in attempt hide facts about drowning – Fear makes you do stupid things.

Fear of a lawsuit can make you do stupid things. In this case it made the owner of a canoe rental operation clean up the trash. The problem was the trash was evidence in a case. Consequently the owner of the canoe livery has pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice.

The criminal defendant in this case owned a canoe livery, Ayers Landing Canoe Rental, in Illinois. A group of teenagers rented canoes from the defendant. They also brought alcohol with them. After the rental was over the teenagers went swimming and one of them drowned.

The owner called 911 and directed one of his employees to clean up the evidence of the underage drinking, which lead to the criminal charges.

By pleading guilty the defendant agreed to two years of probation and to “rewrite his rental policy to include mandatory cooler checks if renters are under age 21 to ensure they aren’t bringing alcohol along for the ride“.

As you can expect, the defendant canoe livery owner is being sued. For what the article does not say and I can’t understand. It appears the defendant canoe livery owner did not buy the beer and did not encourage the alcohol consumption. He may have not even known about the consumption of the alcohol until it was too late. However he and every other defendant are being sued. The deceased victim was under age, consumed alcohol and went swimming. There is nothing to indicate any liability on the part of the canoe livery.

But that is not going to stop a grieving angry family. They will or have transferred their anger to the canoe livery owner attempting to cover up a non-negligent incident into liability for their son’s death. Their emotions are high and a good attorney can transfer those emotions into a lawsuit.

A stupid death caused by underage drinking is always tragic. It would have meant little if anything in a lawsuit against the livery owner. However by attempting to cover up, he may have created the hook needed to win in court if the courts wimp out.

There are two issues here. The first is obvious, trying to hide evidence that would make you look bad. The second is a little more subtle. Turning a stupid move into a lawsuit based on anger and grief. The first is obvious to most people, maybe not as a criminal act, but obvious as something that maybe stupid. The second will depend on whether a jury can be convinced that trying to stop a lawsuit is enough to win a lawsuit.

Something goes wrong, face the music, be honest. You may not have to say anything if there is a criminal issue, find out if there is. But don’t compound a problem or a mistake into a disaster.

See: Rental owner pleads guilty to obstruction in drowning