By ROGER SCHNEIDER
THE GOSHEN NEWS
GOSHEN —
Nadine Bolduan, 59, Goshen, has had her driving privileges suspended pending trial on a felony charge and two misdemeanor charges after a collision in Noble County Thursday.
The Noble County Sheriff’s Department reported last week that Bolduan was the driver of a Chevrolet Avalanche that collided nearly head-on Thursday afternoon with a Buick LeSabre driven by Paul D. Fought, Ligonier. Fought was pinned in his car and suffered serious injuries. He was airlifted to Parkview Hospital in Fort Wayne.
His son Chris posted on his Facebook page that Paul Fought was to undergo leg surgery this past Sunday. He was listed as being in critical condition Tuesday afternoon.
Bolduan was booked into the Noble County Jail Saturday on three charges stemming from the collision — operating a vehicle while intoxicated causing serious bodily injury, which is a felony; and misdemeanor charges of operating a vehicle while intoxicated and endangering a person and operating a vehicle with blood alcohol greater than .15 percent.
Noble County police had obtained a warrant for Bolduan’s arrest after the collision. They reported Thursday that her blood alcohol content was .19 percent when a blood test was taken under the authority of a warrant. Bolduan turned herself in to police Saturday and was booked at the Noble County Jail and then released on a $4,500 bond for all three charges.
At an initial court hearing in Noble County Superior Court 1 Monday, according to a court employee, Bolduan’s driving privileges were suspended and a pre-trail conference was set for July 27.
Bolduan was charged back in 1994 by a Kosciusko County grand jury with reckless homicide after her Jet Ski struck two children on Syracuse Lake on the Fourth of July of that year.
Elizabeth Leman, 9, Fort Wayne was killed in the 1994 collision and Christa Konarski, 10, Elkhart, was seriously injured when Bolduan’s Jet Ski landed on top of them as they rode on an innertube behind a boat, according to police reports from that event.
Kosciusko County changed prosecutors and in 1995 new prosecutor Dave Kolbe had the court dismiss the charges against Bolduan, saying he thought her actions that day in 1994 were negligent but did not constitute recklessness. He suggested the case would be better handled in civil court.
Civil lawsuits in 1995 naming Nadine and Jeffrey Bolduan as defendants were settled in Elkhart County with the Bolduans having to pay Konarski more than $1 million. The settlement with the Lehman family was not disclosed.
