An end of sorts to a long ordeal...

From Latitude 38;

Lake Country, CA

We are thrilled to report that a Federal lawsuit brought by sailor Bismarck Dinius, now 45, has been settled in his favor.

Regular readers will recall the bizarre case of sailor Lynn Thornton's tragic death during a nighttime sail on Clear Lake on April 29, 2006. The boat she was riding in on that dark night, the O'Day 20 sloop Beat's Workin' II, was run over by a 385-hp speedboat driven by off-duty Lake County Sherriff's Deputy Russell Perdock, who, witnesses claimed, was blasting across the lake at at least 40 knots — far too fast to see and react to any obstacles in his path.

But while Perdock was never charged in connection to the death, Dinius was, simply because he had his hand on the tiller of the nearly motionless sailboat at the time of the collision. Debate raged over whether or not the little sloop had its running lights on.

In the aftermath of the incident there was a long and thorny path toward any sort of justice, with Perdock losing his job (and his wife), several of his associates being terminated, apparently due to mishandling of the case, and Dinius eventually being acquitted of all charges in August, 2009.

But Dinius claims the protracted legal battle caused him to run up hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees, lose his job, and hyper-stress his family life.

According to the Lake County News, Dinius did not receive the $1 million he originally sought for punitive damages, violation of his civil rights, conspiracy and corruption, but the news organization notes that according to court records he did receive $210,000 from Perdock's insurance carrier and Sacramento County, representing Lt. Charles Slabaugh, who assisted in the initial crash investigation.

Read the whole story and you'll see that the mis-management of the Thornton death investigation led to all sorts of additional lay-offs or firings, additional lawsuits, and former District Attorney Jon E. Hopkins, who prosecuted Dinius while refusing to prosecute Perdock, not being re-elected. The whole affair was an extremely dark and embarrassing chapter in Lake County's history. Even now, eight years later, the stigma of alleged corruption and wrong-doing remains — especially in the minds of Bay Area sailors.