Guide pleads guilty in rafting death

ALBANY -- An Adirondack white-water guide pleaded guilty Mondayto criminally negligent homicide and two other charges following the Sept. 27 drowning of a client, authorities said.

Court officials said 37-year-old Rory Fay of upstate North Creek also admitted Monday to charges of aggravated unlicensed operation and driving while intoxicated. Fay, who has been in jail since the drowning, faces up to a year in jail and 5 years' probation under the plea bargain.

State police said he was drunk when he and 53-year-old Tamara Blake of Columbus, Ohio, fell out of their raft on the Indian River. Her body was found a few miles downstream in the Hudson River. An autopsy showed she drowned, despite wearing a properly attached flotation vest and helmet. Her boyfriend, 53-year-old Richard Clar of Columbus, also was in the raft.

Fay was a guide for the Hudson River Rafting Co., which has been temporarily shut down by court order.

Owner Patrick Cunningham faces misdemeanor charges of reckless endangerment, accused of sending clients down the Hudson without state-licensed guides. Cunningham, who has run his rafting company for 30 years, has denied the charges.

Thousands of rafters ride a 17-mile stretch of the Hudson and a handful of other fast-running Adirondack rivers from spring through fall with professional outfitters and licensed guides. Drownings are rare.

- AP