Wait for blood tests in N.Y. boat crash raises ire

Steve Lieberman and Khurram Saeed | The (Westchester County, N.Y.) Journal News

Show Caption Hide Caption Hudson River boat crash: Driver charged with manslaughter Officials announce the arrest of the operator of a boat that crashed into a barge on the Hudson River at a news conference on the pier in Piermont, N.Y., on July 27, 2013.

Bride-to-be and groom%27s best man were killed in the Hudson River crash in July

Wait for toxicology reports increases tensions for injured%2C families of victims and driver

Indian community upset with what they see as the unfair treatment of driver Jojo John

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. -- A grand jury inquiry into the Hudson River boat crash that left a bride-to-be and her groom's best man dead could begin next week, though prosecutors said Monday that they continue to wait on key toxicology results for the boat's driver.

Rockland County, N.Y., officials told The (Westchester County, N.Y.) Journal News that they don't know when to expect a complete blood-alcohol content assessment for Jojo John of Nyack, N.Y., the driver in the fatal July 26 crash. The New York state police are conducting the tests as Rockland does not have a county-run police laboratory.

The wait for any evidence of alcohol and drugs has increased tensions for the people injured, the families of the two people killed and John, who is accused of being drunk when a boat he was operating crashed into a barge moored near the Tappan Zee Bridge.

It's also causing hard feelings among some local Indian-American leaders.

"The Indian community is very angry," said P.T. Thomas, a Haverstraw, N.Y., resident who knows the John family and is a former president of the Hudson Valley Malayalee Association. "They are angry that more than 30 days have passed and the toxicology report is not there."

A group of nearly 100 people from Rockland and Westchester counties, most of whom trace their roots to the Indian state of Kerala, met Sunday at a restaurant owned by John's uncle to discuss what they've deemed unfair treatment of John, including the quick filing of charges against him, handcuffing his hands and feet to the bed in the hospital, and not allowing his parents to visit him. There are about 700 Malayalee families in Rockland.

Community representatives were scheduled to discuss their concerns Tuesday with Rockland District Attorney Thomas Zugibe in hopes of getting the charges dropped or reduced — which is unlikely to happen before the case goes before the grand jury.

Lindsey Stewart, 30, of Piermont, N.Y., and Mark Lennon, 30, of Pearl River, N.Y., were thrown from the boat and died. Stewart was two weeks away from marrying Bruce Bond, 35, who was injured in the crash, along with John and two other people on board.

John has been charged with second-degree vehicular manslaughter and vehicular assault. Both charges include underlying accusations that John was intoxicated, based upon initial blood tests on him at Nyack Hospital after the crash.

"The primary reason for this accident is that there was lack of light on this barge," said Thomas, echoing other survivors of the crash who have previously said they were sober and couldn't see the barge as they neared it because it was poorly lit.

The U.S. Coast Guard and state officials of the Tappan Zee Bridge replacement project have said that all lighting regulations were met. As a precaution, dozens of additional LED lights have since been added to all of the barges, moorings and other vessels in the river.

Representatives of Justice For All, an organization that works with Indian-Americans in trouble with the law, has met with the John family in recent weeks. Thomas Koovalloor, chairman of the group, said John has incurred more than $45,000 in legal bills.

"He is worried about his parents," said Koovalloor. "His parents are helping him to finance" his legal defense.

Koovalloor said he met with John for about an hour over four days last week and that John told him he was not drunk on the night of the crash. They showed him news articles and video clips describing his role and "Jojo said that everything was untrue," Koovalloor said.

"His father told me (Jojo) is always crying," he said.

He has lost two friends, his job at a bank and is suffering from a neck injury, Koovalloor and Thomas said.

"His life is at a standstill because all of these things happened," Thomas said.

Rockland depends on the state police, Zugibe said, because the county could not support the cost of a crime laboratory.

"A rudimentary crime lab would be prohibitively expensive based upon our size," Zugibe said. "Westchester is able to turn around toxicology and other tests within days. Like most upstate (New York) counties, Rockland depends on the state police, which services most of the state."

State police laboratories provide results on drugs and alcohol in a person's blood, DNA results, and other forensic needs. The state runs a regional lab for the Mid-Hudson Valley at Stewart Air Force Base in Newburgh, N.Y.

Zugibe said the positive side is he feels Rockland gets "high-quality results from the state police, even though we have to wait because of the sheer volume. ... It would be nice to have a lab to get our own results, but that's a luxury we cannot afford."