An exclusive Martha’s Vineyard tennis and pool club pleaded guilty Friday to involuntary manslaughter

 

Martha’s Vineyard club pleads guilty to involuntary manslaughter in boy’s drowning last summer

An exclusive Martha’s Vineyard tennis and pool club pleaded guilty Friday to involuntary manslaughter for the drowning death last July of a 3-year-old boy who was left unattended in a pool without flotation aids while participating in a summer program. The guilty plea by a corporate entity is a rare legal outcome in a case that was described as a tragic accident, not a criminal act, when it occurred last summer. But following investigations by the state police and the the Department of Children and Families into the death of Henry Backer, prosecutors from the office of the Cape and Islands District Attorney’s Office concluded that the actions of The Boathouse & Field Club and its workers were so neglectful and reckless that they constituted a crime. Read the full story.