Crime & Safety

Boater in Fatal Accident Goes to Trial Wednesday

Brick resident Anthony DiGilio faces charges of vehicular homicide, assault by vessel

Brick resident Anthony DiGilio will go to trial Wednesday in Ocean County Superior Court to face charges stemming from an Aug. 2008 boating accident that left one man dead and injured two others.

DiGilio was indicted in 2010 on charges of vehicular homicide and assault by vessel, with prosecutors alleging he was travelling too fast for the conditions the night of Aug. 3, when the accident occurred in Brick near the area known as Gunner's Ditch where the Metedeconk River converges with Barnegat Bay.

Superior Court Judge Francis Hodgson will preside over the trial, which is scheduled to begin at 9 a.m. in Toms River.

Find out what's happening in Brickwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Authorities have said DiGilio's 27-foot Imperial performance boat hit a 17-foot Boston Whaler being operated by Robert Post of Essex Fells, Essex County. Post, 49, was killed in the crash. His wife, Bonnie, and another passenger were injured.

DiGilio did not stop his boat at the time of the accident, but turned himself and his boat over to police the next day.

Find out what's happening in Brickwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

In the days following the crash, Digilio's then-attorney William Cunningham told the Newark Star-Ledger that his client hit something that night, but was not sure what it was. Cunningham said Digilio stopped the boat, did not hear or see anything, then proceeded on his way, an article published in the newspaper reported.

Joseph Tacopina of New York, DiGilio's current attorney, said he did not have any comment Tuesday.

"Anything I have to say I will say before the jury," said Tacopina, in an e-mail to Brick Patch.

DiGilio is not facing any charges of being intoxicated at the time of the accident, authorities have said.

"We didn't get ahold of him until a couple days later, so we have no way of knowing if there were any intoxication issues," Senior Assistant Ocean County Prosecutor Hillary Bryce told Patch in September.

If convicted, DiGilio faces 10 years behind bars for the vehicular homicide charge and 18 months each for the two assault by vessel charges.


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