I don't know the facts (those may or may not come out at trial -- that's often a crap shoot), but aside from charging the guy at the sailboat's helm, the story posted doesn't say the powerboat operator won't be charged, only that he hasn't yet. A failure of such charges would indeed be a travesty. There remains, though, a problem for the inebriated helmsman (and I don't know his physical condition as a fact, either, just something that's reported.) If I had to recreate the argument the D.A. must have made, it was probably that, even given the powerboat operator's apparent recklessness and it's all but inevitable outcome, the people in command of the sailboat had the last clear chance to avert the disaster. No, not by getting out of the way, which wouldn't likely have been possible, but possibly by having the presence of mind to shine a flashlight on the mainsail, or directly at the boat. The D.A. would likely have said that, but for the intoxication, that opportunity would have still been in play. It wasn't much of a chance, but it wasn't tried. Would a jury buy it? I doubt it, but a jury put O.J. back on the California streets. Nonetheless, "BWI" -- boating while intoxicated -- has become a flashpoint for attention across the country. If they're pursuing it as aggressively in California as in Minnesota -- where alcohol accounts for a number of boating accidents and fatalities annually -- it may explain the public show of cracking down. What's missing here seems to be a considered exercise of prosecutorial discretion -- in both the charges and the "non-charges." A prosecutor's hands aren't tied. Somebody's putting the screws in on this, but of course we don't know who. Lots of conjecture, and perhaps rightly so. That being said, I've never forgotten the practice of a senior partner under whom I worked, who abstained 100% at all functions -- not always easy for a member of the bar -- if he would be behind a wheel later. Not even a beer or sip of champagne -- and he certainly wasn't a teetotaler. He wasn't worried about causing an accident. But he knew that if some schmuck plowed into him, his blood-alcohol reading would become part of the accident report. And that is never good. Especially if that other schmuck tested clean of alcohol, if not idiocy. ************** Vote for your city's best dining and nightlife. City's Best 2008. (http://citysbest.aol.com?ncid=aolacg00050000000102)