Lawsuit: Driver in fatal Delray crash hid assets
Lamborghini driver Roger Wittenberns
A multimillionaire whose Lamborghini struck and killed an Uber driver hid his assets to avoid paying insurance claims benefiting the dead man’s family, a lawsuit alleges.
Roger Wittenberns’ car plowed into J. Gerald Smith, 82, who was heading home for dinner in his Buick SUV, in the Sept. 21, 2016 crash on Federal Highway at Northeast First Street in downtown Delray Beach, police said.
Delray Beach police accused 61-year-old Wittenberns, founder of a fitness club chain, of driving at least 75 mph after hours of drinking at City Oyster restaurant. He faces charges of vehicular homicide, DUI manslaughter and DUI injury.
The lawsuit, filed in Broward County Circuit Court by James River Insurance Co., accuses Wittenberns of concealing real estate holdings.
In 2014 and 2015, Wittenberns sold waterfront homes in Pompano Beach
and Fort Lauderdale and issued private mortgages worth a combined $5.4 million, according to the suit. But in November 2016, Wittenberns assigned those mortgages to two limited liability companies controlled by him or his associates with “the intent to hinder, delay or defraud” his creditors, the lawsuit alleges.
James River Insurance Co., which provided car insurance to Smith, reached a confidential settlement with Wittenberns to resolve insurance claims related to the crash. Smith’s estate received $1.25 million in insurance payments, but Smith’s insurer reserved the right to collect that money from Wittenberns, according to court documents.
The suit seeks a receiver to be appointed to control the mortgages until the debts are resolved, along with discovery of all of Wittenberns’ assets.
Attorneys representing James River Insurance Co. and Wittenberns did not respond to messages seeking comment.
In a document filed in court, Wittenberns’ attorney disputed the lawsuit’s allegations, writing that the transaction was made in “good faith” at a fair market value.
Also, the attorney wrote the transactions were disclosed in public records, and Wittenberns is not insolvent and “possesses assets that could be used to satisfy the debt.”
A wrongful-death lawsuit against Wittenberns, filed in March by Smith’s widow, Eloisa, was settled April 29 for an undisclosed amount.
In recently released investigative files, Wittenberns denied speeding, telling police that although his car packed high horsepower “you don’t have to be a jackass and go fast, so I was maybe going [30 mph].”
Police and witness statements didn’t back that up.
After drinking cocktails and eating a late lunch of Oysters Rockefeller, Wittenberns and his girlfriend Patty Ann McQuiggin, who is now his wife, jumped into their yellow sports cars, according to police. McQuiggin drove a Porsche.
A witness told police he saw the cars tearing down the street, and a reconstruction of the crash found Wittenberns’ Lamborghini was traveling 75 mph.
Blood drawn less than an hour after the crash showed Wittenberns had a 0.15 blood-alcohol level, nearly double Florida’s legal limit of .08, according to an arrest report.
A duplicate of Wittenberns’ check showed he and McQuiggin had “3 Long Island Iced Tea, 3 Cosmo, 3 Goose 4 oz” at the table before moving to the bar area for another Long Island Iced Tea, a vodka martini and another “Goose 4 oz,” the report said.
Florida is a “debtor state” with favorable laws for people looking to avoid creditors, said Fred Schwartz, a criminal defense and civil litigation attorney in Boca Raton who is not involved in the Wittenberns case.
For example, marriage protects jointly owned property from being seized by a debt collector or lawsuit, Schwartz said.
“Attorneys make a lot of money doing what is called asset protection,” he said.
On Oct. 24, 2016 — just over a month after the crash — Wittenberns and McQuiggin filed a marriage license application with the Palm Beach County Clerk’s Office. They were married at the county courthouse in Delray Beach on Nov. 21, 2016.
In an interview Tuesday, Wittenberns’ criminal defense attorney, Marc Shiner, said there is evidence that has not been seen, and that the public shouldn’t rush to judge his client just because he was “driving a fancy sports car.”
Staff writer Ryan Van Velzer and Sun Sentinel news partner WPEC-CBS12 contributed to this report.
sswisher@sunsentinel.com, 561-243-6634 or @SkylerSwisher