Report: Alcohol was involved in Cobb police officer's drowning

While DNR is responsible for law enforcement on the lake and in charge of that investigation, the Cherokee County Sheriff's Office on Wednesday filed misdemeanor charges against the man driving the boat and a woman who was also on board when Stephens went into the water.

Cobb police SWAT team member Sgt. Ken Reda, 37,  and Shelley Powell, also 37, were both charged with making false statements and obstruction, allegedly lying about who was on the boat and the circumstances around the accident. Both were released from the Cherokee County jail on $11,180 bond late Wednesday night.

Reda and Powell live in the same Paulding County neighborhood, according to address records.

Stephens, also a SWAT team member, fell off his friend's boat Thursday night and his body was recovered the next afternoon, almost 15 hours after an air and water search began.

Cherokee Sheriff Rogers Garrison told the AJC it took Reda nearly an hour and a half to call 911 after his friend went overboard, not 10 minutes as he told the 911 operator when he called for help around 10:45 p.m.

According to a 911 tape obtained by the AJC, Reda said he and Stephens were the only people on board. But Sheriff Garrison said Powell also was there, and he said Reda asked her to lie about it to investigators.

“They consistently gave us false information as to how that event occurred, obviously trying to conceal the fact that the third person was on the boat,” Garrison said. “It was approximately an hour and a half between the time of the accident and the time when the first 911 call was made."

Reda had told police that he thought Stephens jumped out of the boat, possibly as a prank. But investigators now say the boat collided with a navigational marker, knocking Stephens into the water. The boat sustained moderate damage, but was still operational, Lt. Jay Baker said Thursday.

Witnesses reported hearing a crash on the water around 9 p.m. and then a female's screams, Baker said.

"During the hour and a half that the incident was not reported, Reda took the female to shore," Baker said. "It would appear he was hiding the fact that she was on the boat."

For almost 47 minutes on a recorded telephone call to Cherokee County’s 911 center, Reda calmly explained how Stephens was “standing up right next to me” at the controls of his 22-foot “shore boat” and then was gone.

“I’m out here on Lake Allatoona. I have a friend I think jumped off my boat and I have no idea where he is,” Reda says on the 911 tape, which was obtained by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “I think he jumped off or whatever the case. I don’t know if he fell off the boat. … I turned around and started looking for him right away. I found his flipflops, and I have not found him.”

Authorities have not released the cause of Stephens' death, saying the investigation remains open. Stephens' funeral was Tuesday in Paulding County, where he and his family lived.

On the tape, Reda says he and Stephens were returning from dinner at a lakeside restaurant Thursday night, heading in the direction of Town Harbor Marina, when Stephens went into the water.

Reda told the 911 operator that they had each had two beers with their meal and were not intoxicated. He also said there was no alcohol on board.

“It was just me and him on the boat,” Reda says.

“Was your friend just on the boat and then not there?” the 911 operator asks.

“No. He was on the boat, but he jumped off,” Reda responds. “I’ve been circling for the last five minutes or so, the last 10 minutes. I’ve been sitting in the boat with engine off, just listening. I thought he was messing with me.”

Reda explained that it would not be out of character for Stephens to jump off his moving boat.

“He’s the type … of guy that would do this type of thing. But not [for] this long. I kind of expect him to start laughing at me at any moment,” he says on the tape. “The guy will jump off a dang train trestle bridge. He’s jumped off my boat in broad daylight. He’s done a back flip off my boat. [But] it’s never been at night [and] it’s cold,” he told the dispatcher.

Stephens, on the Cobb police force since 1996, was an Army Ranger; Reda said that was the reason he was confident his friend had made it to land.

Cobb County communications director Robert Quigley  said Reda has been placed on administrative leave with pay, and the county is conducting an internal investigation.

“We’re waiting to see what the outcome is from Cherokee County and of [Cobb] county’s internal investigation,” Quigley said.

“I was yelling out at the shore,” Reda went on. “I don’t see him swimming around in the water. He’s at the shore. I’m almost positive he could make it to shore. That’s why I’m not too worried about it. … There’s no way he would leave me out on the lake.”

Two dispatchers talked with Reda — one at a time — while he waited for the Cherokee County Fire and Emergency Services boat.

“It’s getting … cold out here,” Reda tells the second dispatcher. “I’m trying to look. I imagine he made it up to the shore.”

Reda told the dispatcher the lights on his boat were disabled, the batteries in a tiny flashlight were beginning to drain and he was using the light from his cell phone to scan the lake’s surface.

Forty-four minutes into the call, Reda heard sirens and then saw blue lights.

“This is them coming right toward me now,” Reda tells the dispatcher.

She tried to console him by telling him that the responding deputies would have a blanket to warm him.

“I’ve got a towel around me,” Reda says. “I think I’m more aggravated [than cold].”

- Staff writer Marcus K. Garner contributed to this report.