MEDFIELD MAN PLEA-BARGAINS SUSPENDED SENTENCE IN DENNIS BOAT HOMICIDE

According to a statement received yesterday from the office of Cape & Islands District Attorney Robert J. Galibois, on Monday, July 15, 2024, David K. Sullivan, (age 19 when indicted in September of 2023,) of Medfield, pleaded guilty to Boat Homicide by Negligence, and Person Under 21 in Possession of Alcohol. A Barnstable County Grand Jury indicted Sullivan on September 29, 2023, for his role in the July 21, 2023 death of a 17-year-old female during a boating crash in Dennis. According to the statement, District Attorney Galibois’s office negotiated the following deal with the defendant: “The Cape and Island District Attorney’s Office consulted with the victim’s family who supported the Commonwealth’s recommendation of a suspended sentence for 2.5 years with 5 years probation. Judge Callan sentenced Mr. Sullivan to 5 years probation with various conditions.” The case was prosecuted by Assistant District Attorney Molly Finn and Victim Witness Assistant Deb McCoy. Sullivan had been initially indicted on the charges of death of a person caused by operating a boat under the influence of intoxicating liquor, possession of false RMV documents, minor in possession of alcohol, two counts of operating a boat while under the influence of intoxicating liquor causing serious bodily injury, and reckless or negligent operation of a boat causing death. On July 21, 2023, at around 9:01 p.m., the Dennis Police Department received a 911 call reporting a boat had just slammed into a jetty near the mouth of Sesuit Harbor. According to initial emergency radio transmissions, a number of police resources and firefighters began to scramble toward the scene upon learning that as many as eight souls were possibly in the water after the boat had hit the rocks. It was an alarming and sometimes chaotic scene where seconds mattered. (See the following HN Videos that show rescue efforts and vessel recovery.) First responders quickly learned that a 17-year-female was unaccounted for and believed to still be in the water near the crash. Her body was eventually recovered from the water by members of the Dennis Fire Department and the regional dive team. She was pronounced deceased at the scene. In a July 2023 media statement, District Attorney Galibois wrote: “Preliminary information received by investigators established that the vessel, a Regulator equipped with two outboard 250 horsepower engines bearing an Alabama registration, was occupied by 6 individuals including the deceased, at the time of the crash. The location of the crash was identified as the jetty by the channel leading to the Northside Marina in Sesuit Harbor. Other occupants of the boat were treated at the Cape Cod Hospital.” The crash was investigated by a number of law enforcement resources, including the Massachusetts State Police Detectives assigned to the Cape & Islands District Attorney’s Office, the Massachusetts Environmental Police, Dennis Police Department, and the Massachusetts State Police Crime Scene Services Section.   HN NOTES: HN arrived shortly after the initial first responders and immediately began documenting rescue efforts on video. I remember Medflight helicopters were not flying that evening, probably due to adverse weather conditions in the area. As I arrived in the parking lot of the Sesuit Harbor Municipal Marina, an ambulance was preparing to transport a teenage male who had suffered a head laceration during the crash. I remember his head appeared heavily bandaged. Another young survivor was nearby, obviously very upset, occasionally crying out… Bystanders began jogging out toward the jetty which was about two blocks from the parking lot with the ambulances. I remember attempting to look out to where the crash happened, but it was too dark to see anything with any clarity, so I returned to the marina parking area. It was a harrowing scene as ambulances, dive teams, and other search and rescue resources began to fill the small parking area near the boat ramp. Then I suddenly saw a sedan fly toward the marina that was now blocked off to the general public. (It was now a crime scene.) I made eye contact with the driver, a woman who appeared to be in her early forties. Her face said it all… and the grief was palpable as she stopped only briefly, looked out at the ambulances and then suddenly sped off toward a small beach parking area near the jetty. In my mind, (although I couldn’t say for certain,) she was desperately looking to find her child. Although I never learned who she was, or which child may have been hers, the look on her face said it all… and a sudden wave of raw sadness hit me in the gut like a heavyweight prizefighter. The fear and grief on her face knocked the wind out of me, and I felt sickened by the entire thing… and I can only imagine how much worse all the parents and loved ones must have felt that evening… along with the painful days that would follow. And now I can only pray, “Dear Lord, please bless and comfort all those affected by that dark, horribly gut-wrenching and senseless tragedy.” [HN VIDEO – PRESS PLAY] [HN VIDEO – PRESS PLAY] CLICK HERE for the initial HN coverage from that evening in July, 2023.