Car Accident Lawyer

Two passengers on a boat that ran over another vessel and killed a U.S. Marine veteran on the Fox River near McHenry told investigators the driver drank and sped all day and one said he sat there after the crash “because he knew what he did.”

Richard M. Stevenson, 45, of Lisle, who is also known as Ricky Stevenson, is charged with first-degree murder, along with aggravated driving under the influence and four counts of operating a watercraft under the influence, all of which are Class 2 felonies.

Stevenson is also the defendant in a wrongful death lawsuit filed in early August by Michelle Macias, the special administrator of the estate of her sister, Magdalena Jablonska, 48, of Des Plaines, and Jablonska’s fiancé, Alan Telmini, who was injured in the crash.

Attorney Michael D. Krause of Chicago-based GWC Injury Lawyers, who represents the family, filed a motion this month seeking to add willful and wanton conduct counts and a request for punitive damages against Stevenson, citing recorded video interviews that Illinois Conservation Police conducted with the two passengers on his boat.

“This case does not involve a momentary lapse in judgment,” Krause said in the motion.

McHenry County Judge Joel D. Berg has also frozen Stevenson’s accounts at Busey Bank, ordering on October 15 that no assets be dissipated or transferred from them until the court rules on November 19 at the earliest.

Stevenson was operating his 2026 South Bay Trifecta pontoon boat, which is equipped with three 500-horsepower outboard motors, on the Chain O’ Lakes and the Fox River on July 25 with a woman and a man aboard, the motion said.

The woman was interviewed by a conservation police officer at the Antioch Police Department on the day of the crash and the man was interviewed by officers the next day.

The woman told investigators Stevenson bought a bucket of Fireball at a gas station.

Asked how many shots Stevenson consumed, she answered, “Definitely a few on the way there and a few on the way back,” the motion said.

She said Stevenson was “definitely drinking” and was drunk “when we got there” and that he became intoxicated quickly after the group left Port Edward Restaurant in Algonquin.

Asked whether she believed Stevenson was intoxicated, the woman answered, “Oh, I think so, yeah.”

The man saw Stevenson drink an alcoholic beverage at Port Edward and two shots of Fireball while operating the boat, the motion said.

The man said Stevenson was stumbling on the dock with slurred speech as they left the restaurant and told police he believed Stevenson was operating under the influence.

He said Stevenson drove at high speeds through multiple no-wake areas throughout the day and disregarded his request to slow down.

The man said he began to feel unsafe because of how Stevenson was operating the boat after they left Port Edward.

The woman said Stevenson “was flooring it, he was going full throttle” for the entire trip to Port Edward and kept the throttles fully engaged while swerving around other boats.

Asked whether Stevenson ran at full throttle on the trip back up the river, the woman answered, “I am not joking, any chance he could, he would.”

She estimated the boat’s speed at around 80 mph and said Stevenson “showed zero signs of concern.”

A video the man provided to investigators shows the boat traveling around 81 mph with Stevenson operating it and several videos show the helm display at around 5,600 RPM, the motion said.

One couple said the pontoon was going so fast that it was “bouncing” on the water with its whole front end out of the water and another boater saw it launch from the water and get air while her sister was in the water preparing to wakeboard, according to the motion.

Illinois Conservation Police have received around 50 tips from the public about Stevenson’s operation of the boat, the motion said.

The McHenry Township Fire Protection District and McHenry County Sheriff’s Office responded around 2:30 p.m. to the Fox River near the 1800 block of South Fernwood Lane in unincorporated McHenry, south of the McHenry Dam, for a report of a crash involving two boats.

Telmini was operating a 20-foot Crownline runabout in a designated no-wake zone with Jablonska seated in the passenger seat near the helm and the couple’s dog, Sasha, on board.

An eyewitness fishing from shore saw the Crownline “putzing along, barely moving” when Stevenson’s boat came “screaming, down the river, just screaming, didn’t even slow down,” the motion said.

The witness said Stevenson’s boat “blew the no wake,” appeared out of control and appeared to be at full throttle.

Other witnesses estimated its speed at 75 to 80 mph and “well over 80 MPH,” the motion said.

The lawsuit said the front end of Stevenson’s boat was “significantly upright over the water level, so as to compromise the Defendant’s ability to see watercraft vehicles and persons that were directly in the path.”

The woman said in a written statement that day that the boat hit a wave “going 80mph that threw all of us around.”

Stevenson fell partly out of his seat while the boat kept going at full speed and seconds later it struck the Crownline and continued into the trees, the motion said.

“He was drunk and couldn’t pull himself back up the chair. That’s what took too long to correct the wheel,” the woman told investigators.

She also confirmed that Stevenson was not wearing the lanyard for his engine cut-off switch, which attaches to the operator and shuts off the engine if the operator falls or is thrown from the helm.

Stevenson did not touch the throttle after he fell out of his seat and the boat “just kept going,” the motion said.

Investigators determined from the damage to both boats that Stevenson’s pontoon struck the stern of the Crownline at a high rate of speed around 30 feet into the no-wake zone and rode over it, according to the motion.

The lawsuit said the South Bay rode up the stern of the Crownline and “literally flew over the top of it.”

A witness watched Stevenson’s boat fly into the timber on shore.

Stevenson did not move after the crash and the woman told investigators he “just sat there because he knew what he did,” the motion said.

Jablonska, who was seated in the port-side passenger seat, was decapitated and was pronounced dead at 3:15 p.m., the motion said.

McHenry County Coroner Dr. Michael Rein later identified Jablonska as the woman who was killed.

Jablonska immigrated from Poland and attended Lane Tech High School before earning a bachelor’s degree in interior design from the Illinois Institute of Art, GWC Injury Lawyers has said.

She served six years in the U.S. Marine Corps and was honorably discharged and later worked as a lead project accountant for ServePro.

Her head was not located during the initial response and recovery efforts and was found by children four days later, the motion said.

The Nunda Rural Fire Protection District and McHenry County Sheriff’s Office responded around 8:45 p.m. on July 29 to the 2100 block of Colby Drive in unincorporated McHenry after a partial human head was found in the Fox River.

Witnesses heard Telmini in the water saying Jablonska’s head had been cut off and a retired EMT who reached him found him in shock with cuts on his feet and scrapes and bruises on his arms, repeating, “She’s decapitated,” the motion said.

The lawsuit said Telmini “was not only physically struck by the boat on his left side, but he saw his beloved fiancé decapitated while she sat within inches of his person.”

Stevenson told a witness moments after the crash that “his life is over” and answered “yes” when asked whether he had been drinking, according to the motion.

Hospital testing measured Stevenson’s blood ethanol at 236.8 mg/dL, which the motion said is equivalent to a blood alcohol concentration of .200 — more than twice the .08 limit for operating a boat in Illinois.

Authorities have previously said Stevenson’s blood alcohol content was nearly three times the legal limit.

Stevenson refused field sobriety testing and refused to provide blood or urine so officers obtained a search warrant for a blood draw that detected cocaine and THC metabolites, the motion said.

Officers also found cannabis in a storage compartment next to the operator’s chair, according to the motion.

Stevenson was charged on July 26 and the McHenry County State’s Attorney’s Office filed a petition to detain him.

McHenry County Judge Cynthia Lamb granted the petition at Initial Appearance Court on July 27 and ordered Stevenson detained pending trial.

A McHenry County grand jury indicted Stevenson on August 20 on the first-degree murder charge, which alleges he operated the boat knowing his actions created a strong probability of death or great bodily harm.

Stevenson pleaded not guilty on August 21.

Krause subpoenaed Busey Bank in September for “any and all accounts and statements” held by Stevenson and any corporation he is affiliated with.

Stevenson’s attorney, Peter K. Moroh, asked the court to quash the subpoena, arguing that pretrial discovery of Stevenson’s finances in a negligence case seeking compensatory damages is “impermissible and prejudicial.”

Krause said in a brief opposing the motion that Stevenson’s finances are relevant to the request for punitive damages and that the record reflects “an imminent risk that Defendant’s assets will be dissipated.”

Krause said Stevenson has asked a DuPage County divorce court for $200,000 from his 401(k) and carries only $100,000 in liability coverage against a wrongful death claim.

Krause also said in an email to Moroh that was filed with the court that Stevenson paid cash for the pontoon, which Krause said cost more than $400,000, and that subpoenaed records showed Stevenson had sought to buy a marina commonly referred to as Dolphin Marina.

The estate has also asked to intervene in the divorce case Stevenson filed in DuPage County to preserve his property while the wrongful death claim is pending, according to an affidavit Macias signed in August.

Berg will hear the request for punitive damages, the motion to quash the subpoena and Stevenson’s renewed motion to pause the lawsuit on November 19, the order said.

Stevenson asked the court to pause the lawsuit until the criminal case is resolved or give him more time to answer, saying he otherwise faces a “Hobson’s choice” between answering the remaining allegations and invoking his Fifth Amendment privilege.

Berg denied an earlier request to pause the case on September 14.

The lawsuit seeks damages in excess of $50,000 on each of its counts for Jablonska’s wrongful death, Telmini’s injuries and the emotional distress Telmini suffered.

Stevenson was a vice president at Bolingbrook-based Stevenson Crane Service, Inc., which has said it terminated his employment after the crash.

Prosecutors said Stevenson has three prior DUIs, four speeding violations and three reckless driving convictions between 1997 and 2005.

Stevenson remains detained in the McHenry County Jail.

He is scheduled to appear in court again in the criminal case on November 5 for a status hearing on a trial date.