Top inset: Carol Wright (WPBF). Bottom inset: Artissua Lafaye Paulk (Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office). Background: The bridge Wright fell to her death from (WPBF).
A former Florida bridgetender was sentenced to 10 years in prison after violating probation in the death of a 79-year-old woman who fell from an open span of a bridge while walking her bike.
Artissua Lafaye Paulk, 46, learned her fate on Tuesday in the death of 79-year-old Carol Wright, online court records show. Paulk pleaded guilty to a manslaughter charge and was initially sentenced to eight years of probation. She violated her probation by failing a drug test, failing to complete mandatory community service, and not paying court fines.
Prosecutors argued for 15 years in prison, while her defense attorney asked the court to reinstate her probation, saying she was making progress and was a “different person now.”
As Law&Crime previously reported, Paulk did not look out her balcony to see if anyone was on the Royal Park Bridge on the afternoon of Feb. 6, 2022. Wright fell through the bridge opening and died because of this, authorities said.
Paulk denied seeing the woman while opening the bridge, according to the arrest affidavit. She maintained that she stepped outside on the balcony of her bridge tower, as required, to ensure no one was on the span. But police said surveillance footage showed Paulk did not step outside.
Witnesses recounted the horror.
One said he tried to save Wright, but he had nowhere to brace himself, and she was too heavy for him to hold, documents said. He had to let her go to stop himself from falling into the opening, documents stated.
Another witness said he had stopped his car at the traffic light of the bridge. He heard Wright call for help.
“Ms. Wright then slid down the bridge and out of his view,” officers wrote.
The driver said he honked his car horn to get the bridge operator’s attention, but the bridge continued opening. After the bridge closed and the gates opened, he drove to the bridge tower and used the call box to report that Wright had fallen.
“The bridgetender came out of the tower approximately 30 or 45 seconds before the medics arrived,” the affidavit stated. “He [this particular witness] could not recall hearing any verbal announcement before the bridge opened or if bridgetender was ever outside on the balcony.”
A female witness told cops she did not hear an announcement at that time, although she had previously heard announcements.
Police learned from a supervisor that bridgetenders must step out onto the balcony three times during the opening procedures to ensure no vehicles or people are on the bridge before opening.
But police say they reviewed surveillance footage of the bridge during Paulk’s shift. Her door did not open for five of the six bridge openings, including this fatal one, they said. Neither was there any movement, they said.
There were a total of six openings that day, video showed. Police also said that Paulk kept incomplete records, logging only four out of the six openings.
“Paulk said she never saw the individual who fell from the bridge,” authorities wrote. “Paulk said she had 5 openings today which she documented on a written log. Paulk said operating the bridge is easy, but it requires ‘a lot of looking’ because there is no sensor or warning that tells her if someone is on the bridge spans.”
Also, that same supervisor was Paulk’s mother-in-law Kathie Harper, documents stated. She allegedly texted the defendant after the incident to “make dam[n] sure you tell them you walked outside on balcony 3 diff times to make sure no one was past gates,” and Harper instructed her to delete the message.
Both women were fired. Harper was not charged in the incident. Wright’s family reached a $8.2 million settlement with Florida Drawbridges, the company that operates Royal Park Bridge.
Alberto Luperon contributed to this report.
