Lamborghini driver avoids jail time
‘Because he’s rich, he’s getting away with it,’ says widow of man killed in DUI crash
There will be no time behind bars for a millionaire Delray Beach man who drunkenly plowed his speeding Lamborghini under an SUV and killed the 82-year-old driver in 2016.
Under the terms of a plea bargain, Roger Wittenberns, a 62-year-old who made his fortune in the health club business, pleaded guilty Tuesday morning to the crash that killed Uber driver J. Gerald Smith near downtown Delray Beach.
Instead of going to prison or jail, Wittenberns will instead serve out two years of house arrest at his $2 million estate. Afterward, he must complete 10 years of probation. A Palm Beach County judge also ordered him to pay Smith’s family $20,000.
“There was no justice today,” Smith’s widow, Eloise, said. “This man killed my husband. He was drunk. And because he’s rich, he’s getting away with it.”
Smith, of Boynton Beach, was the father of three sons, a retired real estate agent and part-time Uber driver. His wife had dinner on the table and he was on his way home when he was killed.
“He was a first-class man,” Eloise said. She especially misses his loving daily affirmation: “I’m a happy man. I’m so lucky.”
Eloise said her health has gone “downhill” since her husband’s death. And the pain, the hurt, the crying, the loneliness, “it will ne-
ver go away,” she said.
Wittenberns has already paid Smith’s widow an undisclosed sum. That was the result of the settlement of a wrongful death claim last year.
“Money can never give me back my husband,” Eloise Smith said. “This man destroyed our life.”
An exotic-car connoisseur who acquired much of his wealth in the health club business, Wittenberns got his start with fitness guru Jack LaLanne in the 1970s. He later owned the Lady of America fitness-club chain and led a company that used to control The Zoo Health Clubs.
The plea deal originally called for two years in a Palm Beach County jail, but because of Wittenbern’s heart condition and chronic back problems, he’ll instead spend the time confined to his home.
“There were issues about whether the state could prove Mr. Wittenberns was really speeding at the time of the crash,” his lawyer, Marc Shiner, said. “And there were three different blood samples with completely different readings. It wasn’t clear-cut.”
It was Sept. 21, 2016, and Wittenberns had just left a late-afternoon, dozen-drink lunch with his now-wife Peggy Ann McQuiggin at City Oyster. The couple’s table tab listed three Long Island iced teas, and “3 Cosmo, 3 Goose 4 oz.” At the bar, the couple paid for another Long Island iced tea, a vodka martini and a “Goose 4 oz,” records show.
They had gotten to the restaurant on Atlantic Avenue at 2:30 p.m. and paid their bill at 4:20 p.m. The crash happened at 4:36 p.m. McQuiggin drove separately in a bright yellow Porsche.
Police say Wittenberns’ bright yellow Lamborghini Murcielago hit speeds of at least 75 mph before it slammed into Smith’s Buick Enclave as he pulled out from a stop sign in the intersection of Federal Highway and Northeast First Street. The front end of the Lamborghini rammed under the SUV, sent it spinning and into a parked Mercedes.
Wittenberns was pretty
banged up and went to the hospital. A nurse there took a blood draw less than an hour after the crash that showed a 0.15 bloodalcohol level, nearly twice the legal
limit of .08, reports show. A blood sample obtained through a court warrant, more than nine hours after the crash, showed no presence of alcohol.
Since his arrest last year, Wittenberns has been on house arrest while awaiting trial on DUI manslaughter and other felony charges over Smith’s death.
On Tuesday he pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of DUI with property damage and a felony count of DUI manslaughter. Had Wittenberns been convicted as charged, he faced a maximum of 15 years in prison.
Wittenberns wrote an apology letter that he read in court Tuesday, his lawyer, Shiner, said.
“He’s terribly sorry for taking a life,” Shiner said. “And he wants to take responsibility.”