4 Coast Guardsmen charged in boating death - Navy News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Navy Times

4 Coast Guardsmen charged in boating death

SAN DIEGO — The Coast Guard on Thursday filed criminal charges including negligent homicide and involuntary manslaughter against four petty officers in the death of an 8-year-old boy during a Christmas boat parade on San Diego Bay last year.

The four Coast Guardsmen, all active-duty members assigned to Coast Guard Station San Diego, were in a 33-foot patrol boat that allegedly was speeding when it collided with a 26-foot Sea Ray cruiser boat about 5:45 p.m. Dec. 20, just before the start of the annual San Diego Parade of Lights boat parade.

The boy, Cole DeWeese, was struck in the head and killed and five other people on the boat were injured.

Charged are:

• Boatswain’s Mate 3rd Class Paul Ramos, the boat’s coxswain, who faces 16 counts on charges of involuntary manslaughter, aggravated assault, negligently hazarding a vessel and dereliction of duty. Among the allegations, Ramos “failed to maintain a safe speed … in order to take proper and effective action to avoid a collision and stop within a distance appropriate for the prevailing circumstances,” according to official charges filed by the Coast Guard. Ramos also is accused of failing to designate lookouts and complete a risk assessment before he and the boat crew got underway. He faces as much as 58 years and a dishonorable discharge if he is tried and convicted on all counts.

• BM2 Ian Howell, who faces 16 counts on charges of negligent homicide, aggravated assault, negligently hazarding a vessel and dereliction of duty. Howell was working as the officer-of-the-day at the Coast Guard station and was a member of the boat crew that evening but, according to the charges, he failed to advise the coxswain to maintain a safe speed and also failed to do a risk assessment or assign lookouts. He faces up to 53 years and a dishonorable discharge if tried and convicted on all counts.

• BM3 Brittany Rasmussen, who faces 14 counts on charges of negligent homicide, aggravated assault and dereliction of duty for allegedly failing to perform as a lookout, according to the official charges. Rasmussen could get as much as 51 years and a dishonorable discharge if tried and convicted on all counts.

• Machinery Technician 3rd Class Lavelle Teague, who is charged with one count of dereliction of duty for failing to perform as a lookout on the boat. Teague could get sentenced to three months and lose partial pay and benefits if convicted.

The four petty officers remain on active duty and assigned in San Diego but “have not been on boat operations since the night of the crash,” said Dan Dewell, a spokesman at 11th Coast Guard District headquarters in Alameda, Calif.

They will appear in the coming weeks at Article 32 preliminary hearings. The investigating officer who will recommend whether the charges against each of the petty officers should be heard at a court-martial, be dropped or be reduced to administrative action. The final decision on each case will rest with Rear Adm. Joseph Castillo, 11th District commander, who will serve as the convening authority in the case.

A fifth person was on the boat at the time of the collision but has not been charged, Dewell said.

The Coast Guard is continuing with work on two separate investigations into the crash, one conducted by the Coast Guard Investigative Service and another internal administrative investigation, he said.

The boy’s family, which has a suit against the Coast Guard pending in federal district court, has complained that the boat crew was speeding recklessly through the bay when it struck their boat, so the charges came as no surprise.

“It confirms what we have felt all along,” Mike Neil, a San Diego attorney representing the DeWeese family and a retired Marine brigadier general, told The Associated Press.

Dewell said that Coast Guard boat operations remain very safe. “It’s a rare occurrence when something like this happens,” he said. “Nobody here in Alameda or at headquarters (in Washington) could remember an involuntary manslaughter charge against a Coast Guardsman in connection with something they’ve done on duty. It’s very rare.”