Today Hot Report

The man authorities believe could have been at the helm of the speedboat when it collided with a 17-foot Boston Whaler on the Metedeconk River about 1 a.m. Sunday met with an attorney Monday to help them with their case. One man was killed and four were injured in the accident.

“I don’t know that it was his boat that hit the Whaler,” said attorney William Cunningham who is representing Anthony Digilio, 29, of Brick. State Police and members of the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office had forensic experts working Monday to determine if Digilio’s Imperial speedboat was responsible for the damage that caused the death and injuries. The Digilio family has been fully cooperating with authorities since they realized they had a possible connection to the tragedy, Cunningham said.

Anthony Digilio told Cunningham he ran over something on his way home on the Metedeconk River and had noticed that the mid shift bilge was on and he assumed he was taking on water.

Digilio thought he had hit a log, Cunningham said today. Digilio and his girlfriend never saw or heard anything while they were traveling on the river when they hit something they believed was a log, Cunningham said.

Anytime, especially at 1 o’clock in the morning, that the bilge pump activates itself , the safest response is to get the boat out of the water “Or you are swimming,’’ Cunningham said.

Digilio and his girlfriend Krista Behrend of Brick, had been out for a ride on the ocean late Sunday and were heading back to moor the boat at a relative’s home on the Metedeconk River. They planned to place the boat on the relative’s lift. In the morning, Anthony Digilio and his father, Joseph, of Brick took the boat home to see the damage, Cunningham said.

Digilio found out that his boat may have been involved in the fatal collision after his girlfriend received a text message from a friend asking if they were OK because there was a boat accident on the news and they were asking if they got home all right, Cunningham said.

They inferred that the news was reporting the accident happened about the same time and place that they believed they hit a log, Cunningham said.

Digilio contacted the attorney, who called the Point Pleasant Police, was directed to Brick Police then finally to State Police Marine division, Cunningham said.

“I don’t think drinking was a part of this,’’ Cunningham said.

The Digilios were absolutely distraught over the idea that they may have caused harm to the family, Cunningham said.

“They were in my office for over three hours Monday and were so upset,’’ Cunningham said. “Not for themselves but for the prospect that they may have injured someone. The family had no idea what they could or should do for the victims, it was obvious that the victims were good people and well respected in the community.”

Cunningham said that the Digilios immediately called authorities and said to come and get the boat, after seeing the damage once it was removed from lift and placed on the trailer and taken to the garage in Brick. The boat was taken to the Digilio home on Frank Neri Drive in Brick and that was when they called Cunningham and authorities to come get the boat.

The Digilio family wants to cooperate fully with the law-enforcement investigation, Cunningham said.

Cunningham, who is a private practice attorney and retired member of the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office, was instrumental in gaining a conviction in the case of Barry Flowers, whose yacht ran over a smaller boat killing three fishermen and maiming a third in 2000.