LAKE COUNTY – As part of a community “debriefing” on an April 2006 boat crash that led to a high profile trial last month, Lake County Sheriff Rod Mitchell has posted his department's report on the crash online.

Mitchell had the report posted online on Thursday. It includes audio files, although Mitchell's message to the community indicated some video files still have to be formatted for release.

On the night of April 29, 2006, a sailboat steered by Carmichael resident Bismarck Dinius was hit by a powerboat driven by Russell Perdock, an off-duty sheriff's deputy.

Lynn Thornton, 51, the girlfriend of the saiboat's owner, Mark Weber of Willows, was mortally wounded in the crash and died three days later.

Dinius was charged in the case because the District Attorney's Office alleged he was under way without running lights, with additional allegations that he was boating under the influence. Perdock, who witnesses stated was going between 35 and 50 miles per hour on a dark, moonless night, was not charged.

On Aug. 20, Dinius was acquitted of felony boating under the influence causing great bodily injury and misdemeanor boating under the influence, with the jury deadlocking on another misdemeanor charge, boating with a blood alcohol level of .08 or more, as Lake County News has reported.

The case has drawn worldwide attention, particularly in the sailing community, and last month Mitchell announced his desire to hold the debriefing with the community in order to answer questions and concerns about how the case was handled.

Mitchell is welcoming questions about the case, which are being compiled by a committee composed of community members, including Helen Whitney, Phil Murphy and Elizabeth Larson.

He said it took a few weeks to format the case file to put it online.

“Please accept my apology for the delay in getting the documents online,” Mitchell said in a letter on his Web site, www.lakesheriff.com . “The process was more labor intensive than I envisioned and our records staff had to perform their 'day to day' records business at the same time.”

Mitchell said the process of scanning the documents to PDF left horizontal lines across each page. “We apologize for the lines and hope that they do not create a distraction. I am addressing them now so that readers do not infer that the lines were an effort to highlight or cross out any particular information. You will note that we have redacted (by covering with a black marker) the addresses, phone numbers, and dates of birth for all of the parties listed on the report.”

Also redacted were addresses and phone numbers of 911 callers, Mitchell noted.

“We are presently working to format the video of two witness interviews that were captured by a patrol car MAV system (Mobile Audio Video). As soon as this is properly formatted it will be added to our website for viewing by the public,” he explained.

The sheriff's Thursday statement noted that, with the exceptions of the redactions and protections of personal identifying information, the PDF document, the video files, and the audio files are duplicates of the entire record that his office sent to the District Attorney’s Office for review.

“I look forward to answering your questions regarding our department’s role in this investigation,” Mitchell said.

Questions can be e-mailed to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . The committee has gathered numerous questions and plans to submit the final list to the sheriff shortly.