A week after toxicology reports showed two fishermen in a fatal boat collision had used alcohol, marijuana or both, the attorney for the tugboat operator accused of killing them said his client “was in no way responsible for the death of those individuals.”
“We look forward to proving his innocence,” attorney Sam Hudson said Friday after an arraignment hearing for Warren Luetke before Hamilton County Criminal Court Judge Barry Steelman.
Luetke, 39, was not present, and Hudson entered pleas on his behalf.
“He told me I didn’t have to be there for that so I didn’t have to miss work,” Luetke said in a telephone interview later Friday.
Luetke works for Chattanooga’s Serodino Inc., the owner of a tugboat known as the Bearcat, which was pushing nine barges at the time of the collision last year.