The provincial court trial surrounding Shark Tank star Kevin O’Leary‘s wife, Linda O’Leary, wrapped Thursday, nearly two years after the fatal boat crash on a Canadian lake that left two people dead. Amid the trial, the question of whether or not the Super Air Nautique, which had been carrying 12 passengers on that August 2019 night, had its lights on had been a point of contention, with Linda’s attorney, Brian Greenspan, arguing that there is no “reasonable evidential foundation” that the O’Leary’s could see the second vessel before the deadly collision.
During closing arguments, Greenspan urged the court to treat testimony from witnesses on the second vessel who said they recalled there being some lights being on on the boat with caution. Greenspan pointed to video released amid the investigation and trial showing the Nautique without navigation lights and also pointed to other witness evidence from others at the O’Leary cottage who said there was no light from the boat until the moments after the collision. In his own testimony, O’Leary said there was “zero light” on the Nautique and “you have to work very hard to make a boat that size be that dark.”
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“There can be no rational, reasonable evidential foundation for a suggestion that the Nautique was anything other than invisible to Mrs. O’Leary on that dark, moonless night,” Greenspan told the court, according to the CBC. Greenspan argued that the judge should reject the witness evidence contradicting the video evidence.
Linda currently stands charged with careless operation of a vessel under the Canada Shipping Act. During the trial, the Crown argued that Linda, who operated the couple’s Cobalt boat that night, should have been driving slower than the “planing” speed she drove at and that not doing so, constituted careless operation of the boat under the circumstances.
Samir Adam, the federal prosecutor, told the court, “They assumed, wrongly, that if they didn’t see any lights, there was nothing in their way. This is clearly in contravention of the collision regulations and a breach of Linda’s duty to not operate her vessel in a careless manner.” He also pointed to O’Leary’s statement to police and court testimony that the other boat became visible “at a distance of five feet,” arguing this as evidence the Nautique wasn’t invisible. However, according to Greenspan, Linda “was doing all the right things at the right time when this terrible tragedy occurred.” In his closing statements, Greenspan said, “The Crown’s case, in our submission, is one of conjecture and speculation.”
