Pair encouraged autistic man to plunge in icy ocean

Parker Drake thought he was going to drown.

Battered by waves off Mana­squan, in frigid water over his head, the 19-year-old autistic, diabetic Howell man struggled to make it back to shore — while two other young men laughingly taped him with a cellphone as he fought to stay alive.

The men, Drake said, had egged him into accepting a dare on Feb. 25: Plunge into the icy waters of the Atlantic and stay there for a minute, in exchange for $20 and two packs of cigarettes.

Drake took the dare, but it almost cost him his life. The pair took him onto a jetty and told him to jump. Once in the icy water, his insulin pump froze. Drake said he's still not sure how he made it back to shore.

"I didn't realize how cold or deep the water was going to be, but by the time I jumped in, I just went down," Drake said recently, recalling the ordeal. "It was deep enough I couldn't stand, and I had to be in there like five minutes."

"There were waves going over my head and salt water going down my throat," Drake said as his mother, Christine Marshall, sat nearby. "I didn't really think I was going to make it."

The men were charged in Manasquan Municipal Court Wednesday afternoon by Drake's mother. She claims they violated the law by "endangering the welfare of an incompetent person." The charge, a disorderly persons offense, carries a maximum penalty of six months in jail.

When contacted by the Asbury Park Press, one of the men declined comment. A man answering the phone at the other man's house said they did not want to talk.

Drake and Marshall say they want justice and to raise awareness for tougher laws to protect developmentally disabled people from such situations. But they've run into roadblocks. Authorities say that because Drake is an adult who voluntarily jumped into the ocean, there was no crime committed against him.

"What it brings up is, is it permissible, legally and morally, to offer someone money to place their lives in jeopardy, and it's frightening, but the answer may be yes," said Lisa Krenkel, an Allenhurst attorney representing the mother and son.

"Then you add on top of it someone like Parker," said Krenkel, who has a general practice, including criminal work. "Is it OK to offer someone like Parker, who has developmental disabilities, who clearly has a lot of physical and mental challenges in life, to offer him money? ... That's clearly what happened here."

Drake's psychiatrist, Dr. Peter Ganime of Neptune, has diagnosed him as having autism spectrum disorder, anxiety disorder, Tourette syndrome and learning disorders, on top of juvenile diabetes, Marshall said. Drake is enrolled in a job-training program for special-needs students at Freehold Township High School, which he can stay in until he is 21, according to his mother.

Drake freely admits that he accepted the dare from a pair of men who he thought were his friends, Nicholas Formica, 20, and Christopher Tilton, 19, both of Howell. Both have been named in the disorderly persons complaint filed by Drake's mother.

As he struggled to swim to shore in the icy, rough surf, the two who put him up to the deed laughed and videotaped it, Drake said.

"I'm yelling, 'Help,' and I found out that they're just recording me, and they're laughing about it," Drake said.

To make matters worse, they interviewed Drake about the experience when he finally made it out of the water, shivering. And they later posted the video to the social media website Snapchat, creating fodder for further Twitter chatter. Someone from Drake's school saw the video on Snapchat, videotaped it with an iPhone and showed it to Marshall, she said.

"They were asking him to explain to the audience what he was going through and what he was feeling," Marshall said of the video.

"He could have died," she said.

Marshall said it was a real possibility her son could have succumbed, either from drowning, hypothermia or because the pump he wears to deliver needed insulin to his body froze and stopped working.

When a reporter called Formica's home asking to speak to him about the incident, a man who answered the phone said, "I don't think that would be possible."

When the reporter tried to leave a message for Formica, the man yelled: "Do not call back, did I make myself clear? Do not call back." He would not identify himself.

When contacted by the Press, Tilton said, "Please don't call me back. I don't want to comment."

Marshall reported the incident to police but was told there was little they could do.

Howell police said they would talk to the two young men and tell them to stay away from her son, Marshall said. But because the incident happened in Man­asquan, they directed her to police there to see about pressing charges against Formica and Tilton, she said.

Manasquan detectives at first told Marshall that the young men would be prosecuted, she said. But they backpedaled and later told her they were closing the case, she said.

Marshall said she was told, "You can go and speak with your lawyer, and you can file complaints yourself."

Manasquan Police Chief Elliot Correia said his detectives, in conjunction with Howell police, investigated the incident, but after consulting with the Monmouth County Prosecutor's Office, a decision was made not to bring criminal charges, he said.

"What it came down to was, it was lacking the necessary level of criminal intent," Correia said. "It came down to a stupid prank that went bad. Fortunately there weren't tragic consequences. It was done as a dare — an ill-advised dare.

"Everyone is thanking their lucky stars that a tragedy didn't result," the police chief said.

Acting Monmouth County Prosecutor Christopher Gramiccioni explained the decision not to bring criminal charges against the two men.

"We thoroughly explored it and found there is no criminal statute that fits the conduct," he said. "It appears to be men exhibiting bad judgment."

The temperature in the vicinity of Manasquan at 5 p.m. on Feb. 25 was 35 degrees Fahrenheit, but it felt like 28 to 31 degrees Fahrenheit with the wind chill, according to David Robinson, New Jersey state climatologist at Rutgers University. The temperature of the ocean was 30 degrees that day, he said.

According to the website of the United States Search and Rescue Task Force, a person could not expect to survive longer than 45 minutes in water colder than 32 degrees Fahrenheit, but death could come in 15 minutes or less, with exhaustion or unconsciousness probable by then.

Krenkel, the family's lawyer, said it would be a crime if the two young men encouraged a child to jump in the ocean that day.

"If someone offered a child money to jump off the edge of the jetty, it would be endangering the welfare of a child," Krenkel said.

Child endangerment is an indictable offense that can be punishable by up to 10 years in state prison.

But Drake is an adult who took the plunge voluntarily, Krenkel said.

Nonetheless, Krenkel said she believes the two men who encouraged Drake to jump in the ocean were well aware of his cognitive limitations and sought to capitalize on them.

Correia said police don't sign complaints charging people with disorderly persons offenses unless they witness the conduct themselves.

Krenkel says she will assist Marshall with her case, but it is unclear whether the court case against the two men will be successful.

"They took him from his home and placed him in danger and encouraged him and cheered him on while it happened," Krenkel said.

Meanwhile, Marshall and Drake say they want to share the frightening story so that laws protecting developmentally disabled people might be strengthened.

"It's wonderful that they have anti-bullying laws in the schools, but what happens to these special-needs kids once they become adults?" Marshall asked. "They have no protections whatsoever."

She said her son has had nightmares and is in therapy since the event, but despite having to relive it by telling his story, he wants to effect change.

"I want to see them prosecuted," Drake said of Formica and Tilton. "And I want them to pass better laws."

Kathleen Hopkins: 732-643-4202; Khopkins@app.com