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Witness: Richardson And Party Left Scene Of Boat Accident Within Minutes

Gov. Bill Richardson (D-NM)

Hmmmm…..

The New Mexico Independent reports:

Gov. Bill Richardson, his chief of staff Brian Condit, budget secretary Katherine Miller and security officers were gone within minutes from the scene of an accident Saturday in which a houseboat was sideswiped and another was smashed into at Elephant Butte State Park, according to an eyewitness.

Here’s what seems to have happened:

The group was on a a houseboat called the Bloody Mary, owned by Leon “Skip” Fay of Rio Rancho, who was also on board. Condit was steering the boat into the marina, but he came too close to the dock, sideswiping another houseboat owned by a man named Carl Shaw Jr. From there, the Bloody Mary accelerated. Fay then took control, but the Bloody Mary was going too fast, and smashed into a second houseboat, the Floating Irish, causing $10,000 worth of damage, according to the incident report.

Then, according to Shaw, who saw the whole thing unfold from his boat, almost as soon as the Bloody Mary had docked, Richardson and his party — except for Fay and his wife — got into vehicles and left.

“It was like they tucked their heads and said see ya,” Shaw told the Independent. “That’s the question, why?”

The police report doesn’t mention anything about the governor’s party taking off so quickly.

Another question: why did Condit then take two days before speaking to police about the incident?

Asked by the police officer whether he had been drinking, Condit said he hadn’t, according to the police report.

Richardson’s office didn’t respond to the Independent’s request for comment.

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