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Todd Spangler sat in his attorney's office Wednesday, wearing shorts and flip-flops along with a sports shirt and blue blazer.
The 30-year-old Waterloo, Neb., investment adviser apologized for his dress, saying he had come straight from the hospital, where he was visiting his injured wife.
Kimberly Spangler has had to undergo numerous surgeries related to injuries she suffered in a June 21 boating incident that killed a family friend, Jennifer Susan de Correa Finke-Dwyer, 30, of La Vista.
The two women were on an inner tube being pulled by a boat Todd Spangler was driving on West Shores Lake, a private lake in western Douglas County. About 7:10 p.m., Spangler turned the boat sharply, the tube swung around and the women hit a dock, the Douglas County Sheriff's Office said.
Todd Spangler will be charged with manslaughter in connection with the death of de Correa Finke-Dwyer. He is set to make his first court appearance Friday afternoon.
De Correa Finke-Dwyer was pronounced dead at the Nebraska Medical Center, where a helicopter had flown her and Kimberly Spangler. Kimberly Spangler, an eye care physician, suffered five broken ribs, a broken scapula, a bruised liver and an exposed bone on her right hip. She faces more surgeries.
Todd Spangler's blood-alcohol level was .16 after the crash, Douglas County Attorney Don Kleine said. That is twice the legal limit for driving.
Manslaughter is the unintentional killing of another person while in the commission of an unlawful act.
The unlawful act, Kleine said, was boating while under the influence. The operation of the boat, he said, was negligent and reckless because the two women were swung into the dock.
If convicted, Todd Spangler could be sentenced to up to 20 years in prison and fined $25,000.
Spangler is the president of Princeton Equity Partners. According to his LinkedIn profile, he graduated from Capital University Law School in Ohio in 2004. The business networking Web site also says that starting in 1998, when he was 18, he served as a senior investment officer at Huntington National Bank, which is based in Columbus, Ohio.
The Spanglers had been the best man and matron of honor in the Dwyers' 2008 wedding, said Spangler's attorney, James Martin Davis.
Spangler, speaking softly and at times fighting back tears, said he has been at his wife's side since the crash.
“It hurts so much to see her in pain,” he said Wednesday at Davis' office.
Spangler said he has been in touch with de Correa Finke-Dwyer's husband, John Dwyer, through a mutual friend. Spangler said the Dwyers are in his prayers.
Davis has said that the crash was not related to alcohol use and was an “almost unavoidable accident.”
“We obviously disagree with that,” Kleine said. “That and the manner of how he was operating the boat was the basis of the charges. To make a statement like that is not reflective of the evidence.”
Before the crash, Davis has said, the Spanglers, de Correa Finke-Dwyer, John Dwyer and two other people had been drinking all afternoon on the lake, which is near 251st and Pacific Streets.
Kleine said Douglas County Sheriff's Office investigators recently finished their interviews of the people on the boat and those on shore who witnessed the crash.
Kleine said John Dwyer was in the County Attorney's Office on Tuesday and was told of the decision to file charges against Spangler.
Kleine said Dwyer told him he thought it was important that people be held accountable for their actions and that he would be willing to give a victim impact statement if Spangler is convicted.
Davis said that he was disappointed by the decision to charge Spangler but that it wasn't unexpected. Davis said a jury will have to decide if de Correa Finke-Dwyer died as a direct result of Spangler's drinking.
“I think Don Kleine wrestled with it and made a decision he thought was the correct one,” Davis said. “The only issue is whether or not the elevated alcohol level caused the death of Jennifer Dwyer. What we are saying is this is not like a drunk-driving case.”
Davis said prosecuting Spangler won't bring back de Correa Finke-Dwyer and won't heal Kimberly Spangler.
A felony conviction would compound the tragedy, he said, as Spangler would lose his law license and various broker licenses.
Contact the writer:
444-1279, jason.kuiper@owh.com
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