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Matthews Band bus driver pleads guilty to dumping waste in river

Stefan Wohl, 42, was sentenced to 18 months of probation, 150 hours of community service and a $10,000 fine after pleading guilty to misdemeanor charges of reckless conduct and water pollution.

Wohl’s guilty plea was the first time that the bus driver for the popular rock band publicly acknowledged discharging the waste. He initially denied the charge when interviewed by police, prosecutors said.

In a court hearing Wednesday morning, Wohl admitted that on the afternoon of Aug. 8, he discharged the septic tank while the bus crossed the grated Kinzie Street Bridge downtown, endangering about 100 sightseers riding the open-deck tourist boat passing under the bridge.

Passengers on the tour boat, Chicago’s Little Lady, described a downpour of foul-smelling, brownish-yellow slurry that ruined their clothes and made several of them sick.

After the incident, the boat returned to its dock where passengers were given refunds. No serious injuries were reported though several passengers did get a checkup at a local hospital.

Speaking after the hearing, Cook County Assistant State’s Atty. Robert Egan, who negotiated the plea deal, said he was satisfied with Wohl’s punishment even though it did not include jail time.

“I have been in touch with many of the people who were on the boat, and none of them suffered any lasting health effects,” Egan said, though many threw out the clothing they were wearing that day and said their cars became soiled on their drive home.

Wohl, of Selma, Texas, will serve his probation and community service in Texas, according to the plea arrangement. His $10,000 fine will be donated to the Friends of the Chicago River. A longtime driver for the band’s fiddle player Boyd Tinsley, Wohl has been suspended from his job since the Chicago incident. The band’s publicist, John Vlautin, said “There are no plans for him to start driving again.”

Vlautin said the “Dave Matthews Band family” was “shocked and saddened to think that one of our buses was involved in this terrible incident.”

Wohl and his attorney had no comment after the hearing.

Last fall, the band donated $50,000 to both the Chicago Park District and the Friends of the Chicago River. In a statement, the rock band said the gifts were an effort “to begin the healing process.”