OSHKOSH (WLUK) – Jason Lindemann appealed his conviction for a 2022 boat crash on the Fox River Tuesday, claiming he drove his boat like “every boater does “ and that the evidence doesn’t support the convictions.
Lindeman was sentenced to five months in jail, three years on probation, and ordered to perform 150 hours of community service for the July 9, 2022 crash between his powerboat and the On The Loos paddlewheel cruise boat. He was also ordered to pay $11,702.79 in restitution.
Surveillance video of a July 9, 2022, boat crash on the Fox River in Oshkosh. (Courtesy Winnebago County Sheriff’s Office)
The crash injured more than a dozen people.
“This is a rare case. Lindemann stands a convicted felon because, not seeing anyone else on the water, he drove his boat like “every boater does.” But driving fast doesn’t mean a person was criminally reckless. It simply means there was an accident. They happen—even when everyone obeys the law,” wrote attorney Joseph Bugni.
A hit-and-run boat crash took place July 9, 2022, on the Fox River in Oshkosh between the{ }Oregon Street bridge and the Wisconsin Street bridge. (WLUK image)
The appeal raises four issues:
- “To convict a person of recklessly endangering safety, the defendant has to be aware that his conduct creates a risk and his conduct has to substantially deviate from the norm. Was there sufficient evidence to convict Lindemann of criminal recklessness?”
- “Did the trial court erroneously exercise its discretion by denying Lindemann’s motion to move the trial?”
- Did the trial court err by allowing an expert witness for the state to testify Lindemann was driving unreasonably?
- “Over the defense’s objection, the trial court allowed the jury to be charged that one of the crimes involved the reckless, negligent, or careless driving of a boat. The term careless, however, was not defined and created confusion within the jury instructions. Did the trial court err by inserting the concept of carelessness into a criminal jury trial?”
While appellate cases are usually decided on written arguments, Lindemann’s attorney requests oral arguments before the court.
“For generations, boaters have done just as Lindemann did. No one can argue with that. Lindemann’s crime is getting into an accident and when tensions got high, leaving the scene. Yet, that’s not the crime he was convicted of. He’s a convicted felon for failing to see something he couldn’t and (importantly) didn’t perceive; and then, not seeing the Loos, doing what everyone does at that point in the River. In those circumstances, the law doesn’t make you a criminal—it makes you a defendant in a civil lawsuit. And the only way to convict Lindemann of a felony offense is to allow the trial to stay in a place where he’s hated, where expert testimony improperly answered a legal conclusion, and where the jury instructions lowered the standards to carelessness—not criminal recklessness. In our system of justice, a conviction under these circumstances cannot stand and thus we ask that the trial court be reversed,” the brief states.
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The state has not responded to Tuesday’s filing. A reply is due next month.
