Trial set for dive boat captain at helm in California’s worst modern maritime disaster

The captain of the Conception dive boat, which caught fireplace and sank off the California coast greater than three years in the past, leaving 34 individuals lifeless, will face trial subsequent month, in accordance with authorities.

Jerry Nehl Boylan, 68, pleaded not responsible Thursday to a cost of misconduct or neglect of a ship officer, stated Thom Mrozek, a spokesperson for the U.S. lawyer’s workplace for the Central District of California. He was launched on bond after the listening to.

A trial date was set for December, Mrozek stated.

The Sept. 2, 2019, fireplace on the Conception killed 33 passengers and one crew member who have been trapped beneath deck. The incident was California’s worst trendy maritime catastrophe.

In October, a brand new federal indictment reinstated the cost in opposition to Boylan a month after a federal decide dismissed a earlier indictment as a result of prosecutors used “negligence” as a substitute of “gross negligence” of their presentation to the grand jury.

U.S. District Choose George Wu’s determination in September to dismiss the earlier indictment with out prejudice meant federal prosecutors might refile the case however wanted to point out gross negligence, a a lot larger customary, to convict the captain.

Negligence quantities to careless errors or breaches of obligation. In distinction, gross negligence requires a deliberate and reckless disregard for the security or lives of others, and it have to be wanton and willful.

Although the latter customary is used for common-law manslaughter circumstances, authorized consultants stated seaman’s manslaughter — because the “misconduct of a ship officer” statute is commonly recognized — requires prosecutors to point out solely easy negligence, or an omission in violation of a regular of care.

Within the new indictment, prosecutors stated Boylan was answerable for the security of the boat and people aboard it, however didn’t have an evening watch or roving patrol, conduct enough fireplace drills and crew coaching and supply firefighting directions or instructions to crew members after the blaze began, in accordance with the indictment, which additionally included different accusations of negligent conduct.

The captain was the primary crew member to desert ship whereas the passengers and a crew member have been alive and trapped beneath deck within the boat’s bunk room, in accordance with the indictment. After abandoning ship, he ordered crew members to comply with him “as a substitute of instructing them to battle the hearth or interact in different lifesaving actions,” court docket paperwork stated.