By Kathianne Boniello
A Bellerose woman critically injured in a July boat collision on Little Neck Bay had recovered enough from her injuries last week to point a finger at the Douglas Manor teen accused of causing the fatal crash, her lawyer said.
Marisa Rodgers, 29, was in North Shore University Hospital for more than a month after the July 11 boat collision and in a medically induced coma much of that time, her lawyer, Eric Gottfried, said. Gottfried said Rodgers was transferred to Jamaica Hospital for “extensive physical therapy treatment” on Aug. 28 and was still there this week.
Rodgers was injured and her husband, John Kondogianis, 36, was killed when a 1996 Sea Ray piloted by Robert Arnold, 18, of Douglas Manor slammed into the couple’s 1990 Bayliner on Little Neck Bay, Gottfried said.
Arnold’s lawyer, Steven Barnwell, could not be reached for comment.
Rodgers told investigators from the DA’s office Friday that Arnold’s boat did not have any running lights on at the time of the crash, Gottfried said. The Bellerose resident also told investigators she did not see her husband use any drugs or alcohol the night of the crash, Gottfried said.
“We were a little surprised ourselves as to how much detail she could remember,” said Gottfried, who said Rodgers only recently learned that her husband, a Flushing native, was killed in the collision. She suffered severe head injuries in the boating mishap.
Rodgers told investigators that all the lights on the couple’s boat were on, Gottfried said, including the running lights and a 360- degree poll light. Rodgers and Kondogianis, who were on Little Neck Bay July 11 in an attempt to heal a rift in their marriage, have a 10-year-old son, Nicholas.
“He should have been able to see that boat from any angle and any approach,” the lawyer said of Arnold. “She was able to see [the other boat] bearing down on them at the last moment.”
Arnold had five other teens on his boat, including George Lawrence, 17, of Little Neck, who was also killed, and another teen, who was seriously injured.
Queens District Attorney Richard Brown dropped initial charges of boating while intoxicated against Arnold after tests showed the teen had a blood alcohol level of .01, sources said. At the time, friends of Arnold had defended the teen as a safe and responsible boater who would not endanger his friends.
But a spokeswoman for the Queens DA said this week an investigation into the incident to determine whether Arnold should be charged with criminally negligent homicide was still underway. The spokeswoman would not confirm that Rodgers had been interviewed by the DA’s investigators.
In the weeks following the crash, sources also revealed that drugs and alcohol were found on Kondogianis’ boat as well as the presence of those drugs in his system, including small amounts of cocaine.
“She told me she had never taken any drugs or alcohol,” Gottfried said of Rodgers, who told the lawyer she “did not remember seeing him use drugs or use any alcohol” the night of the crash.
Reach reporter Kathianne Boniello by e-mail at Timesledger@aol.com or call 229-0300, Ext. 146.
