BOSTON — A young woman who lost her arm in a boating accident in which two men are charged explained in court Thursday how her injuries have changed her life forever.
Nicole Berthiaume, who was 19 at the time of the May 2015 incident, was nearly killed by the propeller of the “Naut Guilty,” a boat owned by Benjamin Urbelis, a Boston defense attorney.
Urbelis and his former intern Alexander Williams are accused of drunkenly and negligently operating the vessel off Spectacle Island in Boston Harbor with several minors on board. Both pleaded not guilty to their charges in 2015.
But on Thursday, Williams appeared in Suffolk Superior Court again for a lobby conference, considering changing his plea.
“Although my mind was the same, I was not,” Berthiaume said of first beginning to cope with her injuries. “I was a shell of a human being, a shell of who I was. The things that made me me were gone. My penmanship I took such pride in, going for a drive, swinging a golf club, throwing a football. Even taking a shower by myself. Although I've worked hard to regain my ability to do all these things again, it is not the same, and it never will be.”
Berthiaume not only lost her right, dominant arm, but her stomach, legs and back were also torn up by the propeller, her left and only hand suffering extensive nerve damage.
Williams admits to starting the engine and steering the boat, but claims he was trying to help Berthiaume as she was in distress swimming. Urbelis and several passengers, including Berthiaume, had jumped into the ocean to grab a mat that had blown off the boat, Williams’s attorney said, Robert Goldstein said.
“No one left on the boat… had boating experience or capabilities,” Goldstein said. “When Mr. Williams had drinks that day between leaving the dock and going to be anchored, he had no intentions or visions of steering or operating any boat that day, had no idea obviously that anything like this was going to occur.”
Goldstein also said an officer observed an odor of alcohol on Williams but that he was not slurring his speech or showing signs of drunkenness.
But Goldstein admitted his client made a “terrible decision” in deleting evidence on his cell phone, an action leading to a charge of tampering with evidence.
Williams is seeking a continuance without a finding and community service, which would prevent the charges from being on his record. Prosecutors, however, are asking for a guilty plea with a suspended sentence.
Berthiaume’s parents also made emotional victim impact statements in court, emphasizing the toll their daughter’s injuries have had on their family and friends.
“These two men are adults. Yet, they chose their self-serving egos, entertainment and enjoyment over being responsible and looking after the kids that they invited to join them,” Lionel Berthiaume said. “Because of their actions, first and foremost my daughter Nicole is forever handicapped. But secondly, everyone that is in Nicole’s world – family, friends, coworkers and classmates – will never be the same.”
The elder Berthiaume called Williams’s and Urbelis’s actions irresponsible, caring more about “their self-serving egos entertainment and enjoyment.
His daughter also called the incident, “not a freak accident,” but “and incident created by wrong-doings, an incident created by negligence.”
Williams will return to court on April 13 for a possible change of plea and punishment.
Cox Media Group
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