Lawmaker calls for probe into FWC after 4 officers had video footage deleted in Pino crash
Rep. Vicki Lopez, a Miami-Dade Republican state House member, called on her colleagues in the Legislature 'to learn what exactly happened and why so this never happens again.'
The call for the investigation comes after the Herald reported that body camera footage from four officers with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission — who were on the scene of the crash and were either in direct contact with or were near the boat operator, Doral real estate broker George Pino — has been deleted.
Miami-Dade cop suggested FWC should do alcohol test at Pino boat crash scene, testimony shows
'I might understand if one of the officers had made a mistake but from what we now know it is impossible to assume that four highly trained officers could all have made such an egregious error,' Lopez said in a statement she posted on the Miami Herald's Instagram account. The Herald also interviewed Lopez.
READ MORE: Two more FWC officers' body cam footage from Pino boat crash deleted, agency says
The FWC says the footage was deleted after the officers classified it as 'incidental,' not criminal, when they uploaded it into the FWC's computer system. 'Incidental' footage is automatically deleted after 90 days; footage from a criminal investigation has to be retained five years for misdemeanor charges and 13 years for a felony charge, according to the FWC's policy.
Lopez said that it ultimately should not have mattered how the officers labeled their footage since it was the responsibility of the investigators to retain all of the evidence.
'And, assume for a moment that they all made a mistake they still had plenty of time to correct their error since body camera footage is not deleted for 90 days,' Lopez said in her Instagram post. 'It is obvious that a full investigation is warranted into what actually happened on that harrowing day.'
The FWC declined to comment Friday on Lopez's statement.
In her post, Lopez asked Rep. Danny Alvarez, a Hillsborough County Republican and chair of the House Criminal Justice Committee, to lead the investigation into the FWC's handling of the crash.
Alvarez's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Herald.
Lopez co-sponsored a House bill calling for tougher penalties for boat operators in crashes with serious injury. The law will go into effect July 1.
Pino, 54, crashed his 29-foot Robalo boat into a fixed channel marker in Biscayne Bay on Sept. 4, 2022, during a celebration for his daughter's 18th birthday. Pino, his wife, their daughter and her 11 teenage friends were thrown into the water after impact, and the boat capsized.
All were injured, although Luciana 'Lucy' Fernandez, Katerina Puig and Isabella Rodriguez were seriously injured. Lucy, who was not breathing when she was pulled from the water, died in the hospital the next day. She was 17 and a senior at Our Lady of Lourdes Academy.
While Isabella Rodriguez, then 17, has recovered, Katerina Puig —a standout Lourdes soccer player with Division 1 college prospects — suffered lifelong injuries and is relearning to walk. Katerina was also 17.
The FWC's initial investigation resulted in prosecutors with the Miami-Dade State Attorney's Office charging Pino with three counts of misdemeanor careless boating in August 2023. Pino pleaded not guilty. If convicted, the maximum penalty would have been 60 days in county jail.
The agency's lead investigator quickly ruled out alcohol despite Pino telling him that night he drank two beers and officers finding more than 60 empty bottles and cans of booze on his boat the next day when they pulled it from the water.
Pino also maintains another boat coming his way in the channel threw a wake and caused him to hit the channel marker. The FWC, in its final report, stated no witnesses — including the people on his boat or boaters in the channel that day — saw that vessel. Photographic evidence also does not support his claim.
Following a series of Miami Herald articles detailing flaws in the investigation, including FWC officers never following up with eyewitnesses, a Miami-Dade firefighter at the scene that day spoke to the State Attorney's Office and said Pino displayed signs of intoxication that day.
Prosecutors reopened their investigation and charged Pino with felony vessel homicide on Oct. 31. Pino pleaded not guilty and is tentatively scheduled to stand trial in September. He now faces 15 years in prison if convicted.
'If we don't get justice, it will be because of the way the FWC investigated this,' Lopez said in an interview Friday with the Miami Herald.
Lopez said the probe should be independent of the FWC and look into whether there are fundamental problems with the way the state agency trains its officers.
'You don't expect law enforcement to make these types of egregious errors,' Lopez told the Herald. 'We are past being shocked, and we are now demanding answers.'
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