An exclusive Martha’s Vineyard club manager has pleaded guilty for the voluntary manslaughter charges against a boy aged three who drowned last year in their pool.
Henry Bowman Backer was not wearing any floaties when he was left alone in the pool by a counselor at the $100,000-a-year membership Boathouse & Field Club in July 2021, the court heard this week.
Henry drowned when the counselor came back.
“We have never seen our son’s eyes open again,” said his father Stephen Backer. He was already brain dead,’ said his father Stephen Backer, in a victim statement. ‘We placed our vibrant, sweet, smart, loving boy in the care of The Field Club and they let him die.’
Today in Dukes County Superior Court in Barnstable, Massachusetts, Boathouse & Field Club general manager Scott Anderson pleaded guilty to negligence, wanton and reckless conduct, causing the death of Henry, on behalf of the club.
‘We had one responsibility as an organization on that day and that was to return Henry back to his family. … and we failed on every possible level,’ Anderson told the court, reports The Boston Globe.
The club was ordered to pay just $100,000 in restitution to the family and was placed on five years probation. The family said that they will be donating the money to a lifeguard training program named the Henry Bowman Backer Water Safety Training Fund on Martha’s Vineyard and Cape Cod.
The judge in the case, Hon. Mark Gildea said: ‘There is no sentence that can be imposed that can justify what has happened.’
Henry Bowman Backer was not wearing any floaties when he was left alone in the pool by a counselor at the $100,000-a-year membership Boathouse & Field Club in July 2021, the court heard this week
‘We never saw our son’s eyes open again. Stephen Backer said that his son was already brain dead. ‘We placed our vibrant, sweet, smart, loving boy in the care of The Field Club and they let him die’
But the family are still furious at the club for letting their little boy die.
Stephen said: ‘This is not the story of a tragic accident. This is the story of a crime.’
‘We are making this statement because the guilty party is a corporation and we can’t look a corporation in the eye.’
The club, which was built as a private members club in 2008, charges members $100,000 per year for membership. Purchase of a home on the grounds comes with a club membership. Homes are priced between $2 and $4 million.
Stephen’s mother, Terry Kassel, was a member of the exclusive club, located on the Katama Peninsula in the Edgartown section of Martha’s Vineyard, according to the Globe.
Stephen’s mother is the head of strategic human resources at Elliot Investment Management having previously worked in a similar role at Merrill Lynch.
On Ellie’s LinkedIn page, she says that she worked at the Jewish Food Society as culinary director between 2016 and 2019.
Ellie is a graduate of Boston College as part of the school’s class of 2002.
Between 2015 and 2021, Stephen worked as the director of creative development at Eko, a company that makes interactive videos.
In their the Globe’s reporting, it refers to Edgartown as ‘the island’s poshest town.’
The Bowman Backer family lives in the Park Slope neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York.
The judge in the case, Hon. Mark Gildea said: ‘There is no sentence that can be imposed that can justify what has happened’
In the narrated video that was played to the court, Stephen and Ellie described every milestone in their son’s life
Henry’s mother Ellie said that when she signed her son up for the Kids Club, she told a counselor that her son would need floaties to play in the pool
Henry’s mother Ellie said that when she signed her son up for the Kids Club, she told a counselor that her son would need floaties to play in the pool.
The counselor told her that Henry would need to bring his own.
On the morning he drowned, Ellie said that she clipped the floaties to her son’s bag.
Cape & Islands assistant district attorney Elizabeth Sweeney told the court that a counselor at the Kids Club told a state trooper: ‘It was the three-year-old child’s responsibility to remember to wear his floaties.’
The prosecutor in the case said that counselors at the Kids Club had not been assigned individual children to look after nor were all adequately trained to look after young children.
In the heart wrenching video, Henry’s parents described their son’s love of music and The Beatles’ movie ‘A Hard Day’s Night’
Henry’s mother described the 14 months between their daughter, Mabel’s, birth and Henry’s death as the happiest of her life
Despite being just three, Henry could make his own Spotify playlists
The money paid by the country club will go toward setting up a life guard training program in Henry’s name
When the counselor who was playing with Henry left with the other children, no other counselor was assigned to him.
Ellie said: ‘When I dropped Henry off at the Field’s Club’s Kids Club that Monday morning. I did not think for a second that I was putting him in danger. Why would I?’
She went on to say that she applied sunblock to her child, pinned his floaties to his backpack and hoped that he would make new friends.
Henry never had his floaties put on him. He spent the morning playing ‘I Spy’ in the swallow end of the pool with two other girls and a counselor.
But when the girls asked for some swimming goggles, the counselor led them away from the pool, leaving Henry on his own, the court heard.
When they returned, they found Henry had drowned. There was no floating line separating the swallow end of the pool from the deep.
The prosecutor said that there were two lifeguards on duty who were alternating shifts of 20 minutes. The on-duty lifeguard was folding towels when he saw little Henry floating lifeless in the pool.
Henry was taken from the pool as the lifeguards and a club member attempted CPR but he remained unresponsive. A portable defibrillator was used on the three-year-old to no avail.
Henry was rushed to Martha’s Vineyard Hospital and then flown to Boston’ Children’s Hospital where he was pronounced dead on July 28.
Henry was dropped off by his mother at 11:15 a.m., he was found floating in the pool at 11:33 a.m.
Today in Dukes County Superior Court in Barnstable, Massachusetts, Boathouse & Field Club general manager Scott Anderson pleaded guilty to negligence, wanton and reckless conduct, causing the death of Henry, on behalf of the club
Club was required to make a restitution payment of $100,000 to the family. The club was also placed on probation for five years. According to the family, they would donate the funds to Cape Cod’s lifeguard training program.
Ellie stated: “We are so grateful for the DA’s team and state police investigations that revealed this terrible truth.
“This wasn’t a tragic accident,” she continued. It was a criminal act. Manslaughter. It’s considered a felony.
The investigation by the state police found Henry was being neglected by staff and counselors, but no names were given to him. The Vineyard Gazette reports.
Stephen stated that they had never received an apology from the country club after Stephen called them alerting them about the incident.
Henry died in August 2013. The club used to update its Facebook page frequently with photographs of members enjoying the amenities.
Following the tragic death of three year-old Dylan, the club hadn’t updated the page until September 6th. A part of the post said: Cheers to the summer ending!
Stephen claimed that Henry is not being honored by his anger toward The Field Club, even though he may feel it.
Stephen decided to not lose his temper over the death of his son and said that he wanted the management of the country club put himself in his place.
Stephen stated that he wanted them think of the possibility of suffering such a devastating loss due to “wanton or reckless criminal acts.”
In the video they shared Henry’s story and discussed his passion for music. He could make Spotify playlists, even though he was only 21 years old.
He named the movie he liked as The Beatles’ Comedy ‘A Hard Day’s Night’.
Stephen and Ellie have a daughter Mabel and are still in mourning.
In a brief statement, the family’s lawyer David Meier said: ‘From day one, the priority for Henry’s parents and family has been about the truth, about transparency, and about accountability’
Cape & Islands District Attorney Michael O’Keefe said: ‘The criminal justice system is inadequate to deal with the pain and anguish of the loss of a child, but it can bring a measure of justice. It has been a blessing for Henry.
In a brief statement, the family’s lawyer David Meier said: ‘From day one, the priority for Henry’s parents and family has been about the truth, about transparency, and about accountability.’
The Field Club is facing probation that will limit the number of water activities it can host for children younger than six years old.
Additionally, the probation prohibits the club’s sale or transfer.
Scott Anderson, general manager, was present with several club directors on June 10.
They were directed to make comments by the judge, who stated: “I had no idea about Field Club prior to this case.” They offer exceptional, unparalleled services to their members. It didn’t take place in July 2021.
Following the judge’s decision in the case, Cape & Islands District Attorney Michael O’Keefe said: ‘The criminal justice system is inadequate to deal with the pain and anguish of the loss of a child, but it can bring a measure of justice. It is my hope that it will do so for Henry.
Massachusetts law limits restitution to companies involved in manslaughter cases up to $250,000.
Terry Kassel, referred to as a philanthropist in several online articles, serves on the board of various non-profits including the Israel based Start Up Nation Central and the Jewish Food Society.
A 2021 New York Post article claims that Terry Kessel has a relationship to Elliot Management founder Paul Singer. Singer, who is described in the Post article by being ‘notoriously secretive’, has an estimated net worth of $3.6 billion.