Lynnway Auto Auction President Pleads Not Guilty To Manslaughter In 2017 Crash

WOBURN (CBS) - The president of a Billerica auto auction where five people were killed in a crash two years ago pleaded not guilty to five counts of manslaughter Thursday.

LynnWay Auto Auction president James Lamb was released on a promise to return to court after his arraignment in Middlesex Superior Court.

A Jeep Grand Cherokee plowed into a crowd of people at Lynnway on May 3, 2017, killing five people and injuring seven others.

Claudia Santos lost her father in the crash. "He was a really happy man and loved his grandkids. He had 7 grandkids. He was a happy man, hard working also," she told reporters after attending Lamb's arraignment.

The driver, an employee of Lynnway, did not have a license at the time of the crash. When indictments were handed down in March, the Middlesex District Attorney did not charge him because he was not on a public road and could not be charged with driving offenses. He was also not charged with manslaughter since the DA's office couldn't meet the burden of proof that the driver acted "recklessly."

However, they found Lamb and his company criminally responsible for "failing to take appropriate actions that could have prevented the death of five people."

Lamb was warned not to hire unlicensed drivers, but did it anyway, investigators said. He was also supposed to make safety improvements to the facility after an incident in 2014 to keep more separation between the cars and the people inside. District Attorney Marian Ryan said Lamb signed an agreement to make the changes, but they never happened.

Outside court Thursday, Lamb's attorney Hank Brennan said Ryan's version of the facts are"skewed" and that before the accident the company "took every safety measure known" to protect its customers and workers.

"He has been in the auto action business for over 47 years and there is no way he ever, ever could have anticipated the terrible tragedy that occurred that day," Brennan told reporters. "Mr. Lamb and Lynnway Auto have done everything they could to cooperate with law enforcement and all investigators. They've been cooperative from the moment this tragedy occurred."

"I don't know why that the district attorney's office chose to charge Mr. Lamb and the company with this terrible accident," Brennan said, adding that Lamb is a "pillar of the community."

Today dealers attending auctions here say it's a safer place.

"Every auction in the whole world runs the same way. They happened to be unlucky, that's all," said one dealer who bought a vehicle at this week's auction.

If convicted, Lamb could face a maximum of 20 years in prison for each manslaughter count, adding up to 100 years.