{"id":17681,"date":"2020-03-26T12:38:59","date_gmt":"2020-03-26T16:38:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/?p=17681"},"modified":"2020-04-24T14:08:38","modified_gmt":"2020-04-24T18:08:38","slug":"night-of-shooting-stars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/night-of-shooting-stars\/","title":{"rendered":"Night of the Shooting Stars"},"content":{"rendered":"

When two worlds collide after twilight on a hot sum\u00adm\u00ader night, the terrible result is blood in the water and a rift in the Long Lake community that threatens to become a chasm\u00ad.<\/h3>\n

By Colin W. Sargent<\/em><\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t dark yet, but it was getting there. As the crepuscular chorus of tree frogs tolled the close of Saturday, August 11, with Long Lake<\/strong> on its way to becoming black as a mine shaft, Terry Raye Trott<\/strong>, 55, and his new love, Suzanne Groetzinger<\/strong>, 44, departed the shore in their 14-foot Glasspar runabout Sting Raye<\/em> and puttered beyond Bear Point. Meteorologists had promised this night\u2019s sky would be the stage for a spectacular performance. No doubt, Trott put his arm around Groetzinger as they shared a glass of wine, because what could be more romantic than taking in a meteor shower? Here and there, locals and summer folk alike began to appear in small groups along the shore to witness the forecast event, huddling on dock, deck, and pier during the night of the shooting stars.<\/p>\n

NEW LOVE<\/strong><\/h5>\n

The hopeful couple was just getting to know each other. \u201cRaye\u201d Trott, a carpenter and the leader of a local blues band that often played at Bray\u2019s Brew Pub<\/strong> in Naples, and Groetzinger, a waitress there, were looking forward to celebrating his 56th birthday together in just two days. According to accounts, Groetzinger, a mother of three who was also holding down two other jobs, \u201cwas happiest in a sweatshirt by a campfire\u201d and was very excited about this new relationship. \u201cSuzy and I were very tight, and I hadn\u2019t heard from her in a couple of months,\u201d her friend and now her family spokesperson Meg Harvey<\/strong> says. \u201cThat\u2019s how I knew she was deeply in love. Her son called her on her cell phone\u201d while she sat in Trott\u2019s black pride-and-joy with red\u00a0trim and a 110-horsepower Mercury on the lake \u201cand asked her, \u2018What are you doing?\u2019 She answered, \u2018I\u2019m out here with Raye, and we\u2019re going to watch the Perseids.\u2019\u201d
\n\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/strong>\u201cOh, yeah,\u201d says Groetzinger\u2019s brother, Stephen Sokol<\/strong>, \u201cit was very much like her to be out looking at the stars. She was very much into nature. She and Raye had only been together for two or three months, so things were just beginning for them\u2014like a puppy love.\u201d<\/p>\n

GONE IN 60 SECONDS<\/h5>\n

Across the lake, Robert J. LaPointe<\/strong>, 38, sat at the controls of his red-and-white 32-foot Sunsation Dominator, a twin-435-hp cigarette-type boat. On board was a single passenger, Nicole Randall<\/strong>, 19, a local girl and daughter of the owners of Harrison Marina<\/strong>, where LaPointe kept his boat. LaPointe would later tell police he had seen Trott\u2019s boat earlier in the evening without its running lights on. According to the Cumberland County District Attorney\u2019s office, LaPointe had enjoyed a few drinks.
\n\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/strong>Spectators on the lake could see only darkness and the occasional meteor flash from their vantage point. Amid the oohs<\/em> and aahs<\/em> of watchers marveling at the show, the Sunsation began to thunder across the lake, its lights on, at an estimated 45 to 55 miles per hour, according to a reconstruction team of the Maine Warden Service. In the \u201cpitch black, with just a tiny sliver of moon,\u201d according to Cumberland County District Attorney Stephanie Anderson<\/strong>, the Sunsation then hit the Glasspar on the port side, traveling over the smaller boat and killing Suzanne Groetzinger with \u201cblunt force trauma to the head,\u201d according to the state medical examiner. Trott drowned after suffering a disabling injury to his buttocks amid the wreckage as the Glasspar\u2019s stern sank; LaPointe and Randall were ejected from the Sunsation and were flung into the inky lake.<\/p>\n

OUT OF THE DEEP<\/h5>\n

Gasping for breath, LaPointe and Randall surfaced half a mile from shore, and in pain began a long swim to the closest point of land.
\n\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/strong>\u201cThe police got there before they got to the shore,\u201d says Anderson of LaPointe and Randall. \u201cThe CCSOI (Cumberland County Sheriff\u2019s Office Investigator) was the first person at the scene. A member of the Maine Warden service got there, too.\u201d
\n\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/strong>\u201cI was there two minutes before they reached the shore,\u201d says warden Jason Luce<\/strong>. \u201cThere were a lot of fire and rescue people; several boats were out there looking around. I\u2019d already been down to the shore but saw no one involved; when I returned, I could see Mr. LaPointe and Ms. Randall swimming in.\u201d
\n\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/strong>LaPointe sustained bruising to the side of his body and cuts. Randall suffered a broken elbow and must have felt excruciating pain. \u201cShe said it was sore, but adrenaline\u2019s a wonderful thing,\u201d Luce says. \u201cShe\u2019d swum maybe half a mile. Maybe farther than that.\u201d
\n\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/strong>\u201cThe first thing they said was something like, \u2018There must have been another boat out there!\u2019\u201d Anderson says.<\/p>\n

MAYHEM ON SHORE<\/h5>\n

As for the Dominator, it zoomed \u201cwith nobody aboard for hundreds of yards and came aground on Bear Point\u201d with such force that it smashed into the shoreline and continued to explode a measured 135 feet into the woods, its engine roaring. \u201cA group of about four or five camps was there. They were lucky it missed them,\u201d says Phil Dugas<\/strong> of the Maine Warden\u2019s Service. \u201cIt never hit a tree square on, because it\u2019s shaped like a needle.\u201d
\n\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/strong>The needle pierced a family playground with a swing set and crashed a badminton net, caroming off a big oak tree. \u201cIt did slow,\u201d finally coming to rest on an upgrade, dripping lake water. \u201cA resident of one of the camps came outside, walked up to it, and turned it off.\u201d With deadly efficiency, the liquid-cooled engines\u2019 computer monitoring system had adjusted engine speed to a purr at idle.<\/p>\n

THE RIPPLES SPREAD<\/h5>\n

In the following weeks, some Maine newspaper accounts would identify LaPointe first and foremost as \u201cA Massachusetts man,\u201d as in, \u201cA Massachusetts man faces multiple charges in the crash that killed two\u201d and \u201cA Massachusetts man was drunk and driving too fast when his high-performance speedboat plowed into a smaller craft in a nighttime crash that killed two people on Long Lake in Harrison, prosecutors say\u201d (Portland Press Herald<\/em>).
\n\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/strong>Why the emphasis on Massachusetts? Perhaps it\u2019s a cultural thing. Asked about it, humorist Tim Sample<\/strong> says, \u201cUp here in Maine, the only thing worse than being from Massachusetts is being from Maine and wishing you were from Massachusetts!\u201d
\n\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/strong>There\u2019s no crime in being wealthy, a clich\u00e9, or even from Massachusetts. But rare is the story that\u2019s devoid of overtones of allegory. And this isn\u2019t one of them. Will our own prejudices and situational morality end up being a part of this tragedy?
\n\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/strong>To be precise, LaPointe has property in Medway, Massachusetts, but also owns property in Bridgton, Maine. Formerly of Framingham, Massachusetts, he is the co-owner and chief operating officer of Comptel Services, Inc<\/strong>., of Holliston, Massachusetts. According to their web page, Comptel is \u201ca leading re-marketer of Nortel telecommunications products,\u201d with \u201csatellite offices located in Texas, Missouri, and the Philippines.\u201d
\n\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/strong>From a different perspective, a story in the Milford Daily News<\/em> alludes to him as a Mainer first, as in, \u201cRobert LaPointe Jr., 38, of Bridgton, Maine, and Medway, Mass.\u201d He is married and the father of two children, according to the Lewiston Sun Journal<\/em>, which refers to him as a \u201cMedway man\u201d and \u201ca Massachusetts man.\u201d Not to mention, he is \u201capparently wealthy,\u201d says district attorney Stephanie Anderson<\/strong>. A Dominator, even used, sells for $100,000 and up.
\n\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/strong>As for the Bridgton teen sitting beside LaPointe in his Sunsation, the blonde Lake Region High graduate was not LaPointe\u2019s wife. Instead, Randall \u201cis the daughter of the family that owns Harrison Marina, where LaPointe keeps his boat,\u201d says Harrison harbormaster Gary Pendexter<\/strong>. \u201cBoth families are close friends. The families [frequently] get together on that boat or one from the marina.\u201d The har – bormaster volunteers, \u201cThere was no hanky panky involved.\u201d
\n\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/strong>According to the Associated Press, \u201cLaPointe and Randall were on the water for about nine hours prior to the crash and LaPointe had stopped and consumed alcohol at various locations.\u201d
\n\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/strong>But that\u2019s incorrect, according to Anderson. \u201cI don\u2019t know where they got that figure. It was closer to three hours.
\n\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/strong>\u201cI don\u2019t know that they were anything but<\/em> family friends. They hooked up with some people and stopped on an island. She was working [at her parents\u2019 marina] until 6 or 6:30 p.m,\u201d Anderson says before adding, \u201cYou can be showing off no matter what your relationship with someone is.\u201d<\/p>\n

A FAMILY GRIEVES<\/h5>\n

Groetzinger\u2019s brother, Steve Sokol, now of Plantation, Florida, says, \u201cHe\u2019s with a 19-year-old, out on the lake, drunk on his ass. To me, it\u2019s pretty clear. It\u2019s not what I focused on at first, because it\u2019s not what\u2019s going to bring my sister back.\u201d But during the days leading up to and following her funeral [at Bray\u2019s Brew Pub], with some family members traveling great distances to attend, as more information came under discussion, \u201cat some point I remember thinking, \u2018She wasn\u2019t just a family friend.\u2019 But I\u2019m just speculating.\u201d
\n\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/strong>You can hear the pain in his voice, because he mourns not just the loss of his sister, but most poignantly what she might have done in the future.
\n\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/strong>\u201cSuzy was different,\u201d Sokol says. \u201cI have vivid memories of having real conversations with her. She wasn\u2019t afraid to speak her mind, but she had an eloquent way of connecting with people. She was always very positive\u2014she just had a way of making you feel good. She loved Maine. I tried to talk her out of Maine, but I couldn\u2019t. She just loved the lakes and mountains. She was very much into nature.
\n\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/strong>\u201c\u2026She was extremely bright, very attractive. She didn\u2019t have a lot of luck with guys until she met Raye. That\u2019s one of the hardest parts.\u201d He\u2019s quiet a moment on the telephone. \u201cThere\u2019s nothing wrong with being a waitress, but she had an incredible mind\u00a0for business and had shown so much potential\u201d for more achievements in that vein. \u201cIf she could have enjoyed this time with Raye,\u00a0who knows what opportunities were in front of her?\u201d<\/p>\n

THE CRIME SCENE<\/h5>\n

\u201cI\u2019m the lead detective on the case,\u201d says Phil Dugas. \u201cThe bodies [of Trott and Groetzinger] were recovered on August 14, three days after the crash, within an hour or two of each other, near the crash site. Twenty-three officers from our department participated in the recovery.\u201d He pauses. \u201cThree days might seem like a long time to you, but imagine: There\u2019s no skid marks on a lake.\u201d
\n\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/strong>Moreover, \u201cWe relied on eyewitnesses who told us what they saw from a distance. While more than one person saw the two boats come together, it was at night. There was no explosion or flash; circumstantially, you might be able to say that there was a sound.
\n\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/strong>\u201cI refrain from using the word accident when I talk about marine crashes,\u201d Dugas says. \u201cAn accident implies something totally at random. Although it\u2019s common verbiage to refer to a car crash as an accident, the word implies something that may not be true. I refer to these investigations as crash investigations.\u201d
\n\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/strong>As for eyewitnesses, at least two have come forward, but their view of the crash was from a distance. \u201cWe\u2019re not hearing there were a lot of boats around, like you\u2019d expect on, say, July 4, but there were boats around,\u201d Dugas says. \u201cAugust 11 was a clear night, with a slight wind, a warm summer evening. It was obviously after sunset\u2026We have witnesses who were sitting around on boats, getting ready for this meteor shower, but the lake wasn\u2019t crowded with boats.\u201d
\n\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/strong>The problem was, the nearer to the point of remembered impact the search boats got, the blacker, and more enormous, the search area became.
\n\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/strong>\u201cWe worked 10 divers on August 12, and had nine in the water on both the 13th and 14th,\u201d Dugas says. \u201cWe dove again on the 15th, with seven divers.\u201d<\/p>\n

WATERY GRAVES<\/h5>\n

Rick Stone<\/strong> of the Maine Warden Service says, \u201cIt was so silty. It was a brown darkness. We have a piece of plywood that is two-and-a-half feet across\u00a0with handholds in it, and as the dive boat moves along on the surface, two divers are towed underwater, one on each board along the bottom of the lake.
\n\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/strong>\u201cThe max depth I hit was 42 feet. The problem is you\u2019re looking at a greenish hue, so you couldn\u2019t really see if you were on the bottom unless you reached out and touched it. They go really slow, and they have a GPS so they can grid search the bottom. When we see something major, we call up to the surface and \u2018drop off the board.\u2019\u201d
\n\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/strong>The first clue to the location of the bodies was the single, half-floating \u201ccredit card of the missing man,\u201d Stone says. \u201cI saw it from six or eight feet away.
\n\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/strong>\u201cI turned my flashlight on. I can\u2019t remember if it was MasterCard or Discover. I\u2019m guessing it was 400 feet away [from the boat wreckage],\u201d Stone says. But he and his fellow divers were not alone.
\n\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/strong>\u201cSometimes bass stick around and watch. Trout or salmon, all you see is a swirl where they used to be. The bottom was remarkably smooth, but that made you lose points of reference, too. For example, I saw just one log in four days of diving.
\n\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/strong>\u201cAfter I found the credit card,\u201d the search tightened and adjusted accordingly, but wind had blown the boat and the debris south on the lake and blew other debris, wallet items, onto the island [off Bear Point].
\n\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/strong>\u201cThen we found a pillow and blanket on the bottom. It was after dark, but we pressed on.\u201d With the disorientation even greater in the path of kicked-up silt and flashlights: \u201cThe turbidity reflects the light, the way snowflakes in a snowstorm flash back at you\u201d when you turn on the porch light. \u201cThink of going into a lit room from the darkness.
\n\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/strong>\u201cUntil you see something on the bottom, you don\u2019t know where the bottom is. There\u2019s just this brownish or greenish hue,\u201d this blinding silt swirl. \u201cThen you see something and you have a line of reference.
\n\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/strong>\u201cI\u2019m the one who discovered the female. I came right upon her. She had a white shirt on and was lying on her left side. I could see the boat ahead of me. I reported \u2018I\u2019ve got a body!\u2019 and let go of the board.
\n\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/strong>\u201cI never saw her face, because she was turned away, back to me, her hair in the water, swirling. [My fellow diver] Irene Yaws\u2019s buoy surfaced to mark the spot for the GPS, and two other divers went down on her buoy. They made a circle search, and\u00a0Bruce Loring found the other body. It was a long process. You keep swapping tanks, another diver goes down.\u201d<\/p>\n

A SENSE OF CLOSURE<\/h5>\n

Finding bodies in the murky depths may be an unenviable part of Stone\u2019s job, but he brings a lot of heart to the scene. \u201cWhen I see the body, I think yes, now the family has some closure for this. The family has to deal with this tragedy. [Only now can] the family go to the funeral and start the grieving process. No matter what anyone says, they can\u2019t really begin that process until the body\u2019s discovered. When we don\u2019t find someone, that\u2019s what hurts. We have a snowmobiler still missing in Sebago Lake from last February. That hurts. If you have cold water and deep depths, it’s just\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

CHARGES FILED<\/strong><\/h5>\n

On October 13, the Lewiston Sun Journal<\/em> reported that Robert LaPointe, Jr., posted \u201c$100,000 cash bail\u201d and surrendered his passport after being indicted. According to the DA\u2019s office, he\u2019s been charged with two counts of manslaughter (no mandatory minimum, statutory maximum 30 years and maximum fine $50,000 each), two counts of aggravated OUI (mandatory minimum 6 months\/$2,100\/10-year license suspension; maximum 10 years\/$20,000 each), two counts of aggravated OUI watercraft (mandatory minimum $400; maximum 5 years\/$5,000 each), and one count of reckless conduct with a dangerous weapon (no mandatory minimum; 5 years\/$5,000 maximum).<\/p>\n

ENTER THE BIG GUNS<\/strong><\/h5>\n

Now there\u2019s a high-profile lawyer involved. LaPointe has hired J. Albert Johnson<\/strong> of Boston to defend him.
\n\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/strong>Johnson has online credits that touch on his famous defenses of \u201cPatty Hearst in San Fancisco and Los Angeles,\u201d \u201cPamela Smart in New Hampshire,\u201d \u201cJames McCord of Watergate fame in Washington, D.C.,\u201d even \u201cCaptain Ernest Medina\u2013Mai Lai Massacre Cases\/Vietnam.\u201d
\n\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/strong>Johnson \u201csuccessfully defended his colleague\u2026lifelong friend, [and fellow helicopter enthusiast] F. Lee Bailey, in California\u201d as well. Johnson is a celebrity in his own right, and viewers may recognize him from his appearances on, according to the bio, \u201cABC Nightline, ABC Good Morning America,\u00a0ABC World News Tonight<\/em>\u2026CNN Wolf Blitze<\/em>r\u2026Inside Edition with Deborah Norville\u2026ABC News [with] Diane Sawyer<\/em>,\u201d and on and on.
\n\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/strong>Johnson has told the Associated Press, on October 6, \u201cEveryone ought to remember fully and completely that Mr. LaPointe has the presumption of innocence. Negative pretrial publicity, prejudicial publicity can be very dangerous to a fair trial.\u201d<\/p>\n

OKAY, WE CAN COME IN NOW<\/h5>\n

Visiting the Cumberland County District Attorney\u2019s office these days means a trip through the back door and a slink through a security metal-detecting portal that is unmanned for the moment, because the imposing front door facing Lincoln Park in Portland is blocked off. Here and there, courthouse visitors appear to be lost because so many doors are temporarily closed and out of use. It\u2019s as if the present generation is camped out here somehow\u2014functioners, filers, lawyers, clerks, and wheezing photocopiers\u2014in this grand marble palace of justice created for a posterity that wishes it were more technologically advanced.
\n\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/strong>Golden oak trim and original golden oak furniture such as library tables dating to the building\u2019s original structure increase as you approach Stephanie Anderson\u2019s office on the second floor. A swinging Dutch door in the same substantial wood opens to her waiting room. With a forward wave, she cracks her private office door slowly, as if it may be rigged for a bomb.
\n\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/strong>She takes a deep breath and peeks inside. \u201cOkay,\u201d she says. \u201cWe can come in now.\u201d
\n\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/strong>Two extremely young gray-and-white kittens now creep out from behind her desk, with a soft blanket and cage now visible behind them. \u201cI didn\u2019t want them to get out,\u201d she says. \u201cThey\u2019re too young to be here, but I\u2019m doing what I can.\u201d
\n\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/strong>She gets down to business. \u201cDefense-attorney rhetoric,\u201d she says of Johnson\u2019s comments to the press. \u201c[LaPointe] faces two counts of manslaughter because there were two people killed,\u201d she shrugs. \u201cHe was essentially driving blind. What I mean is, he couldn\u2019t see. Because it was pitch black\u2014it was very dark that night, just a tiny sliver of a moon. And he was intoxicated.\u201d
\n\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/strong>According to the Associated Press, LaPointe had a blood alcohol content (BAC) of .11 percent. Groetzinger\u2019s was .06, and Trott\u2019s .07. According to Maine.gov,\u00a0\u201cIn Maine, if you are driving a motor vehicle with a blood alcohol content of .08 or more, you are guilty of a criminal offense known as Operating Under the Influence (OUI).\u201d
\n\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/strong>As far as the time line for the case in the future is concerned, that\u2019s \u201ccontrolled more by the defense,\u201d Anderson says. \u201cLast time I checked, Mr. Johnson hasn\u2019t filed a motion for discovery, dismissal, [or whatever.]\u201d LaPointe was scheduled for arraignment at the end of November.
\n\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/strong>As for lessons learned, \u201cIt has stimulated a discussion of boating safety,\u201d Anderson says. \u201cI hope it\u2019s made every boater take a breath. I hope they consider that a body of water has no headlights, no lanes, and no streetlights. He was going way, way too fast, an estimated 45 to 50 at the time of the crash\u2026
\n\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/strong>\u201cWhen I saw the reconstruction of that boat coming on top of the smaller one, it was like \u2018a tractor-trailer hitting a Volkswagen,\u2019 Anderson says. \u201cI don\u2019t think this story is about \u2018a Massachusetts man\u2019 with a \u2018scantily clad 19-year-old\u2019\u2014I think I\u2019ve read that somewhere\u2014aboard. This is a story about a man who is driving a large powerboat recklessly, and he caused the death of two people.\u201d<\/p>\n

FROM AWAY<\/h5>\n

\u201cThe fact that he was from Massachusetts, apparently wealthy, and had a young female passenger in the boat are wholly irrelevant, don\u2019t fit into the legal analysis, and don\u2019t fit into the criminal culpability,\u201d she says. \u201cIf the reverse were true, with two wealthy Mainers in the big boat, and two people from Massachusetts in the small boat, we\u2019d still have the same [charges]. Let\u2019s say it was LaPointe and Nicole in the 14-foot boat. Let\u2019s say [Trott] and [Groetzinger] were in the big boat. For anybody to suggest the charges would be different is offensive and irresponsible.\u201d
\n\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/strong>Besides, she says calmly, as if pulling out an ace from a deck of cards, \u201cmost of the witnesses<\/em> are from Massachusetts.\u201d
\n\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/strong>\u201cThe bottom line is if he\u2019s from Mass., Mars, or the moon, he killed two people,\u201d Dugas says on the telephone. \u201cMy job is to make sure we provide the facts and evidence to the DA to their satisfaction so they can provide an indictment, and ultimately a conviction.\u201d
\n\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/strong>As for the lights on the deceased\u2019s boat, \u201cThe state cannot prove that the lights were on,\u201d Anderson says. \u201cI\u2019m going to need to prove that\u00a0[LaPointe] was at least criminally [negligent]. I don\u2019t know if the defense is going to move to suppress the name of the boat, or the blood alcohol test, or things like that, because the motions haven\u2019t been filed yet\u2026
\n\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/strong>\u201c\u2026But if photos of the wreckage or reconstruction are shown, jurors will see the name of LaPointe\u2019s boat, No Patience<\/em>, in big letters right on the boat.\u201d<\/p>\n

WHAT THE FUTURE WILL BRING<\/h5>\n

Meanwhile, life goes on. It has to. Like many 19-year-olds, Nicole Randall, nicknamed \u201cColey,\u201d updates her Facebook page regularly on the internet. October 20, Nicole of Red Sox Nation is cheering<\/em>. October 21, Nicole says: I feel Content<\/em>. October 22, Nicole took a movie quiz!<\/em> Friends have left condolences and words of encouragement on the page, including, \u201cKeep your head up.\u201d A big hockey fan, she continues to work at Harrison Marina and at the Bridgton Ice Arena.
\n\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/strong>When we call to speak to her father, David Randall, at Harrison Marina, we are told, \u201cHe\u2019s not here right now. I\u2019m not saying what my name is. We don\u2019t have any comment on that here.\u201d Then they hang up.
\n\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/strong>\u201c[Nicole Randall\u2019s] family was out on the lake partying on another boat at the time of the crash, from what I understand,\u201d a source, a long-time resident of Long Lake, says.
\n\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/strong>\u201cThe Randalls had a place on the lake first, and then bought the marina six or seven years ago.\u201d There\u2019s a pause. \u201cThey\u2019re from Massachusetts, too.\u201d
\n\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/strong>At the Cumberland County courthouse, the district attorney awaits filings from J. Albert Johnson.
\n\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/strong>When we reach Trott\u2019s mother, Elsie Dinsmore of Eastport, she describes a memory of her son that keeps coming back to her. \u201cThis was before his grandfather, Alfie, taught him to be a carpenter.\u201d Before he adopted his middle name in the seventies\u2014\u201cto us he was Terry.
\n\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/strong>\u201cHe was a very, very sweet little boy,\u201d she says. \u201cHe loved boats. We had a camp on Boyden\u2019s Lake. When he was six, he\u2019d put on his little captain\u2019s hat and go out in a skiff he called the Tee<\/em>, just in front of our camp, you know, back and forth. He used to wave at me and give me rides. I have a picture right here of him out in that little boat, giving me a ride. We never let him go out into the lake.\u201d
\n\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/strong>We reach Robert LaPointe at work at Comptel Services, Inc. In the background are noises as though he\u2019s talking in an open warehouse. \u201cThere was no lights on on the [other] boat,\u201d he says, \u201cbut you\u2019re going to have to call Al Johnson. Thanks.\u201d
\n\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/strong>Though we left multiple telephone messages with associates at his office, J. Albert Johnson did not return our call.<\/p>\n

TO BE CONTINUED<\/h5>\n

This is not a whodunit, but rather a Greek tragedy or something out of Shakespeare. The questions that will hold us over the next several months are, was this a tragic accident or preventable negligence? Just how much is there a crime, resulting in how much punishment?
\n\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/strong>\u201cIt\u2019s more than just this accident,\u201d our source feels, with a lot at stake. \u201cYou see all these coolers being carried into boats on a night like that, and boats that should be on the ocean, not on a lake, and everybody making improvements to their homes on the lake, showing off and trying to beat each other, using credit cards and buying things they can\u2019t afford, and\u2026
\n\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/strong>\u201cIt\u2019s something we\u2019re all doing to some extent,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s like we\u2019re all<\/em> too good to be responsible any more. I went through an intersection with the light turning red. By the time I\u2019d made it through, I looked back and saw four other cars had come in behind me.\u201d
\nMaybe we all see ourselves reflected in Long Lake.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Emily K. Sears contributed research for this article.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The night two Mainers lost their lives in a boat crash on Long Lake, Harrison Maine.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":17918,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[850,854,864,856,877,871,879,873,868,862,878,865,872,849,876,870,857,861,858,866,875,860,855,863,859,874,853,852,869],"class_list":["post-17681","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-classic-maine-stories","tag-august-11","tag-bear-point","tag-boat-crash","tag-brays-brew-pub","tag-bruce-loring","tag-comptel-services","tag-emily-k-sears","tag-gary-pendexter","tag-harrison","tag-harrison-marina","tag-j-albert-johnson","tag-jason-luce","tag-lake-region-high","tag-long-lake","tag-maine-warden-service","tag-massachusetts","tag-meg-harvey","tag-nicole-randall","tag-perseids","tag-phil-dugas","tag-rick-stone","tag-robert-j-lapointe","tag-shooting-stars","tag-stephanie-anderson","tag-stephen-sokol","tag-steve-sokol","tag-suzanne-groetzinger","tag-terry-raye-trott","tag-tim-sample"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17681","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17681"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17681\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17978,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17681\/revisions\/17978"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17918"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17681"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17681"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17681"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}