Jojo John who was the driver of a powerboat that crashed in the Hudson River in July, was drunk at the time of the crash, according to an indictment made public on Thursday, the Associated Press reported.
The 35-year-old was among six people on board the 19-foot Stingray at the time of the crash. Lindsey Stewart, the bride to be, and Mark Lennon, her fiance's best man, who were both thrown off the boat and drowned in the river, according to the AP.
The crash occurred on the night of July 26 south of the Tappan Zee Bridge off Piermont, north of New York City, the AP reported. Three others on board the boat, including the groom to be whose wedding with Stewart was only two weeks away, were injured.
John faces 18 charges including vehicular manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide, vehicular assault and operating a vessel under the influence of alcohol or drugs, according to the AP.
"Drinking and driving is a lethal mix, as it appears to have been in this incident, which left several families shattered," Rockland County District Attorney, Thomas Zugibe, said after the indictment was made public.
According to Zugibe, John's blood-alcohol level was 0.15 percent, almost twice the legal level for boating, and "cocaine metabolites," which are produced after cocaine is ingested and the body breaks it down, were also found, the AP reported.
John's defense lawyer David Narain was not available for comment, but James Mercante who's handling John's civil suits said poor lighting on a barge in the Hudson caused the crash, not intoxication, according to the AP.
"Any alleged impairment had nothing to do with the casualties," Narain told Reuters. "One should be able to cross a wide open expanse of river, whether impaired or not impaired, without having poorly lit or unlit barges in the middle of the road, so to speak," according to the AP.
In a statement released a day before Stewart's funeral, Stewart and Lennon's parents said survivors said "none of them saw the barge. They did not brace for impact and could not identify what they had hit - even after impact," according to Reuters.
The barge the speedboat hit was part of pre-construction activity that was preparing to build a new Tappan Zee Bridge which, allegedly, did not have proper lighting, Reuters reported
The Coast Guard and Thruway Authority stated the barge was properly lit, but investigators are currently looking into the matter, Reuters reported.
