Family attorney of man who died while crossing bridge reacts to DA's decision to not press charges

MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) -- The family attorney of Richard Dujardin is speaking out after hearing the DA's decision of not pressing charges against the bridge operator who was working when Dujardin died while crossing the Kilbourn Avenue bridge.

"I wasn't surprised by the issue we all know what the criminal standards are, it's very high burden, both burden of proof and so unless the operator was drunk or sleeping or something like that, it was not unexpected," said family attorney Jay Urban.

In August, Richard Dujardin was visiting Milwaukee from Rhode Island when he tragically died while crossing the Kilbourn Avenue drawbridge after it opened, and he fell 70 feet.

The Milwaukee County District Attorney's Office issued a press release to note that there " ... is no evidence of criminal wrongdoing" with regards to the death of a man crossing the Kilbourn Avenue drawbridge of Aug. 15.

According to the release, the office reviewed reports related to the death of 77-year-old Richard Dujardin, including an interview with Dante Hamilton, the bridge operator on the day of the incident.

They also conducted an inspection of the area in which bridge operators carry out operational duties.

Their findings were that neither Hamilton nor "anyone else in relation" to the death of Dujardin is involved in criminal wrongdoing.

The DA's office says that their review of the matter has concluded and that they plan on taking no further action.

In response, Urban said they believe the operations of the drawbridge are faulty which is what they plan to fight for in court.

"I think it's definitely a systems case that is for sure and for all things having to do with the system, whether it was the controller, or the video or the quality of the video, place of the video, placement. Those kinds of things are on the table," said Urban.

The Commissioner of Public Works, Jerrel Kruschke, shared this statement saying in part: "Our bridge operators, managers and support staff are a highly dedicated group of professionals," adding, "We will continue to explore opportunities to make improvements to bridge operations to hopefully prevent this from ever happening again."

Urban has not filed any legal work at the moment as he said he is still gathering information.