RAW VIDEO: Tugboat crash, sinking
Tugboat captain misled cops about girlfriend on board, sources say
Jonathan Bandler, jbandler@lohud.com 1:09 p.m. EDT June 30, 2016Raw video from the March 12 sinking of the tugboat Specialist at the Tappan Zee Bridge construction site on the Hudson River was provided to lohud and The Journal News by attorney James Forde. Provided by attorney James Forde
(Photo: Westchester County Police)
Story Highlights
Sources say captain did not reveal his girlfriend was on his boat.
After the tugboat Specialist crashed and sank near the Tappan Zee Bridge three months ago, the captain of a second boat hid from investigators that he had his girlfriend on board for the trip, The Journal News/lohud has learned from sources.
Westchester County police are looking into why "Realist" captain James Morrison misled them about who was on his boat and why Specialist’s captain, Paul Crowley, was helming Realist at the time of the accident, according to sources familiar with the investigation.
The crash on March 12 killed all three Specialist crew members and has triggered multiple lawsuits from victims' families seeking tens of millions of dollars. Lohud first revealed last week that another apparently unauthorized person was on the tug.
Just before dawn that morning, Specialist, Realist and a third tug, Trevor, were leading a crane barge down the Hudson when Specialist struck a construction barge. The tug sank quickly, killing crew members Paul Amon, Timothy Conklin and Harry Hernandez.
James Forde, a lawyer for Amon’s widow, said Morrison's main mistake was not bringing someone else who was licensed to helm the tug. If he had, he would not have had to pull Crowley from Specialist during a potentially difficult stretch of the trip, he said.
Specialist handled the initial trip to Albany alone but Crowley sought assistance for the return to New Jersey. On March 11, the towing manager for crane-barge owner Weeks Marine reached out to Morrison to join the effort. It was unclear whether the request was for just Morrison or his tugboat as well.
The sources said that Morrison was intent on staying with his girlfriend, Jessica Allega, who was already on the boat, prompting him to get approval to have the Realist hired as an extra tug. They and another crew member then made their way up the Hudson from their base in Staten Island to meet up with Specialist that evening.
Early on March 12, Morrison asked Crowley to cross the barge and take the helm of Realist.
That left mate-in-charge Amon at the helm of Specialist. Amon was qualified to skipper the tug, but Forde has suggested that he may have been too fatigued to do so that morning after a difficult 24 hours of battling the fog and currents.
At approximately 5 am, the Specialist struck the construction barge near the bridge.
Amon managed to get onto the crane barge but went back onto the tug in a failed bid to help Conklin and Hernandez.
Details left out
According to the sources, Morrison told investigators who arrived after the accident that the only people on the Realist were himself, Crowley and the other crew member. The boat was not searched so police never came across Allega.
Police are looking into whether any reckless or negligent behavior contributed to the crash.
Citing the ongoing investigation, Westchester County police Commissioner George Longworth declined to comment. He would not say whether investigators have spoken with Allega.
Morrison told The Journal News last week that he had worked a six-hour watch before Crowley took over on a six-hour watch. He would not answer questions about whether he had a woman on board. When asked if Jessica was on board, he asked ‘Who’s Jessica?’ before saying, “Are you reading my Facebook page? You shouldn’t do that.”
Reached by phone again Wednesday, Morrison asked not to be called again, referring questions to his lawyer. The lawyer did not return a phone message.
Facebook posts
Morrison took to Facebook to express anguish in the weeks after the accident.
“Just wanted to reach out and thank all who reached out to me over the past week ...phone .. Text .. Or Facebook .. I appreciate all of it," Morrison wrote on March 18, days after the bodies of Amon and Conklin were recovered but six days before the sunken tug was raised and Hernandez' body recovered from inside.
"If I didn't get back to you .. Forgive me .. It's been a very sad time .. God bless my guys who were lost that morning .. God bless the families .. I cannot express to you the sadness and how sorry I am for your loss ... As we wait for Harry to be returned .."
The owners of New York Marine Towing Inc. of Montauk could not be reached for comment. The company’s lawyer, James Mercante, said Morrison, whom he does not represent, was responsible for deciding how to staff the two boats.
Mercante said Morrison could have decided only to bring a deckhand because “the unit was underway and they needed (Realist) with some expediency.”
He said that Specialist was “well-staffed with qualified personnel” and that there was “nothing inherently wrong with taking a licensed man off one (tug) and putting him on another.”
Mercante said he did not know the particulars of the captain’s conversations with police immediately after the accident. If Morrison was asked, for example, what crew he had aboard, Morrison would not have been wrong if he indicated only Crowley and the deckhand, Mercante suggested.
He said the owner was unaware that the woman had been on board during the trip.
Relatives of the three dead men are seeking tens of millions of dollars from several entities they hold responsible for the tragedy. They have filed lawsuits in federal court against: the owner of the crane barge and Trevor, Weeks Marine; Tappan Zee Constructors; Traylor Bros., the company that operated the construction barge; and New York Marine Towing Inc.