© 2018 The Texas Lawbook.
By Allen Pusey
(June 28) – Travis County prosecutors are apparently investigating whether a prominent transactional attorney for Vinson & Elkins broke the law May 10 when he left the scene of a boating accident on Austin’s Lake Travis.
McWilliams was missing for nearly five hours after leaving the group in an apparent effort to find help, prompting a helicopter search across a darkened Lake Travis before he contacted authorities from a callbox at 3:54 a.m. In the meantime, the group that remained was rescued and at least two were hospitalized.
The arrest warrant, requested by a game warden with the Texas Department of Parks and Wildlife, alleged that McWilliams “had been drinking” when he left the scene of the accident, a potential felony under Texas law. But McWilliams has denied the allegation in his own affidavit, along with sworn statements from 17 other witnesses who said they had not seen McWilliams drinking excessively – or had not seen him drink at all.
Brian Roark, an Austin-based criminal defense attorney who represents McWilliams, said in a written statement, that the game warden who filed the charge against the Houston lawyer had done so without guidance from the prosecutor handling the matter. Moreover, he had either withheld or misrepresented circumstances surrounding the incident suggesting that no crime had been committed at all.
“The game warden decided on his own to attempt to get a warrant for something that is not an offense in Texas and made misleading statements in an effort to do so,” Roark said. “The game warden not only directly contradicted the witnesses who were involved, but also hid relevant information which proved that no offense was committed” – an apparent reference to the affidavits that had been provided.
McWilliams, 48, is a partner in V&E’s Capital Markets and Mergers & Acquisitions practice and is considered a top-tier talent in transactional law. In 2015, he ranked No. 1 among all Texas lawyers in the number of capital markets offerings he advised.
A V&E spokesman reiterated the firm’s support for McWilliams: “The facts as we understand them do not support this attempt by the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department to obtain an arrest warrant. Fortunately, that warrant has been recalled. We are fully supporting Doug and all of our attorneys involved in this unfortunate accident.”
McWilliams had been hosting a buffet dinner at his Lake Travis home for a large group of colleagues from his practice group the night before a daylong retreat. When the evening ended at around 10 p.m., according to witness accounts, the group discovered that their shuttle bus was unavailable, and McWilliams offered to use his boat to ferry a group of five colleagues back to their hotel at the Lakeway Resort and Spa.
According to several of the 17 witness statements provided to The Texas Lawbook, it was shortly before 11 p.m. on the return trip, after a brief scenic swing around the lake, that McWilliams apparently lost his way in the dark and ran aground in an unfamiliar area of Lake Travis. The force of the crash threw McWilliams and at least one other passenger out of the boat. When the group had trouble raising signals on their cell phones, McWilliams said he was leaving to get help.
The passengers left behind said they were finally able to make contact with authorities and locate themselves through their cell phones, according to the witness statements, but when the emergency crews arrived, McWilliams was still unaccounted for. The group said they had believed themselves to be stuck on an island, and that they feared McWilliams might have drowned in an effort to get help for them.
In his own affidavit, McWilliams said he had separated his shoulder in the accident and had been knocked unconscious when he fell while trying to negotiate the darkness toward a marina he could see in the distance. He said he was surprised to learn that nearly five hours had elapsed by the time he was able to make contact with authorities.
“I have heard the insinuation that law enforcement might be suspicious that I was attempting to perhaps hide away during those hours because I might have thought myself to be intoxicated when the accident occurred. I must admit that I take great offense to this,” McWilliams said in his sworn statement. “I was not hiding from anyone as I had nothing to hide. I was not intoxicated when the wreck occurred, or for that matter, at any time during the night.”
Roark predicted the investigation against McWilliams will be dropped all together after a review by the Travis County District Attorney’s Office.
“We expect a more professional review by the district attorney’s office will result in Mr. McWilliams being cleared from any wrongdoing,” Roark said.
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