Two men pleaded innocent yesterday in State Supreme Court to charges growing out of the death of a 16-year-old in a boating incident last June.
From the beginning, it was known Avery Gardner hit her head on an Ellicott Creek bridge early on the morning of June 11 and received fatal injuries. Since then, police from several agencies and prosecutors have probed what happened.
The indictment says then-17-year-old Gregory Green was impaired at the boat's wheel and owner Timothy Wisniewski, aged 51, was on board. Acting District Attorney Michael Flaherty says Green is charged as an adult.
Green is charged with criminally negligent homicide, three counts of vehicular manslaughter second degree, two counts of boating while intoxicated and endangering the welfare of a child. State Supreme Court Justice John Michalski says the young man had a .15 blood alcohol level.
Wisniewski is said to have been drunk, and under the influence of pills and marijuana. He's charged with criminally negligent homicide, two counts of boating while intoxicated, endangering the welfare of a child and possession of marijuana. Town of Tonawanda police say they spent hundreds of hours probing Gardner's death.
