Florida Bridge Tender was charged with manslaughter when he pulled up a Palm Beach Bridge while an elderly woman on foot was still trying to reach the other side safely.
Artisua Lafaye Palak, 43, was arrested at her home on Thursday and released on Friday after posting 20,000 bail, News4Jax reported.
Carol Wright, 79, was riding his bicycle over a West Palm Beach bridge in February when the bridge tender lifted the drawbridge before reaching the other side safely.
Carol Wright
According to WPTV, Carol Wright was 10 feet away from the end of the bridge when it started to go up.
A good Samaritan grabbed Wright by the hand and tried to save him but he couldn’t hold on and about 7 stories drowned in his death at 79 years old.
According to court documents, Palak was encouraged by his guardian to lie to the police, which may have been his mother-in-law.
“When they talk to you, make sure you tell them you walked 3 times off the porch to make sure no one was able to delete this message,” Palak’s supervisor told her in a text on February 6, WPTV reported.
Palak also blames the victim and falsely claims that Wright went under the gate to grab his cellphone and died after going up the bridge.
Detectives said surveillance camera video proved that Palak’s statement was false, the outlet reported.
WPTV reports:
A West Palm Beach Bridge tender was in court on Friday after a 79-year-old West Palm Beach woman who fell off the Royal Park Bridge was arrested in connection with her February death.
Artisua Lafaye Palk, 43, of Greencross, has been charged with one count of genocide for criminal negligence in the death of Carol Wright.
One possible reason given by WPTV is that the affidavit shows that Cathy Harper, Palak’s caretaker, who is also his mother-in-law, asked him to inform the police that he had inspected the bridge.
After the incident, the two women sent multiple text messages.
In one of the messages, the report found that Harper instructed Palak to lie to investigators about checking the porch of the bridge house for pedestrians.
“When they talk to you, make sure you tell them that you walked 3 times outside the porch to make sure no one was outside the gate and not deleting this message …” Palak’s supervisor texted him February 6 , On the date of Wright’s death.
“I’m here with the police. I killed a woman on the bridge,” the affidavit shows.
Harper then asked Palak to delete his text message. Investigators say Palak tried to blame Victim.
More from WPTV:
Post ‘I Killed A Lady On The Bridge’ – Florida Bridge Tender Murder Allegations First appeared in The Gateway Pundit after six stories were drowned out over the death of an elderly woman.