Felony dropped in Houston lawyer's Lake Travis boat wreck
AUSTIN -- Travis County prosecutors have dropped the lone felony charge against a Houston attorney from a prominent law firm who had been accused of abandoning injured colleagues after he crashed his boat into land on Lake Travis last year.
Douglas E. McWilliams, a partner in the Vinson & Elkins’ mergers and acquisitions division, has said he told passengers he was leaving to get help for two women who had suffered serious injuries. But when McWilliams didn’t return and disappeared for almost five hours, authorities feared he might have been in the water and began a search that included 16 law enforcement officers and the use of an Austin police helicopter.
A Texas Parks and Wildlife Department investigator noted in an affidavit that McWilliams, 49, had been seen drinking at a dinner party before the wreck and charged him with leaving the crash scene.
But prosecutors never presented the case to a grand jury for a possible indictment and on Tuesday formally dismissed the charge “in the interest of justice,” according to court documents.
Read more: https://www.statesman.com/news/20190508/felony-dropped-in-houston-lawyers-lake-travis-boat-wreck