Homicide charge filed in Friday boating crash
A 53-year-old Hartland man who admitted being “super drunk” while boating on Lake Nagawicka on Friday was charged Monday with killing a woman on another boat he struck without slowing down.
Anthony F. Drewes faces a single count of homicide by intoxicated use of a vehicle in the crash early Friday evening. He made his initial court appearance Monday in Waukesha County Circuit Court. He posted $10,000 bail.
According to the criminal complaint, Drewes was operating a white deck boat at about 25 mph when he struck a pontoon boat about 5:45 p.m. Jill Ladwig, 61, who was a passenger on the pontoon boat driven by her husband, was thrown from the boat and died from drowning and blunt force trauma.
When police arrived at the east shore of the lake, they found beer and alcohol on the striking boat. One of the other two men aboard said Drewes was driving when they hit the pontoon boat.
Drewes was in the water and appeared to be trying to hide from police, who ordered him out. He appeared intoxicated and later admitted drinking and being “super drunk” but initially denied he was operating the boat. He later admitted he had been driving, the complaint indicates.
Investigators had to curtail field sobriety tests for Drewes’ own safety, fearing he would fall down and hurt himself, according to the complaint.
Damage to both boats suggested Drewes tboned the pontoon boat and went over it, leaving damage to the bow and under the hull of the striking boat.
Drewes refused to consent to a blood test, so he was taken to a hospital while investigators obtained a search warrant for a blood draw. When told Ladwig had died, Drewes told police, “Kill me. Just kill me.”
Court records indicate Drewes earns more than $250,000 a year at Fiserv, had lived in Illinois prior to Wisconsin about nine years ago, is married with two teenage children and has no prior criminal record.
His attorney, Matthew Huppertz, declined to comment.