Latest news with #BostonWhaler
New York Post
6 days ago
- General
- New York Post
2 charged in ‘hit-and-run' boating death of 15-year-old Florida ballerina mowed over while wakeboarding: officials
Two men have been charged in connection with the Florida hit-and-run boating death of 15-year-old wakeboarder Ella Adler more than a year after the tragic incident, officials announced Tuesday. One of the men charged, 78-year-old Carlos Guillermo Alonso, allegedly struck Adler with his 42-foot Boston Whaler in Biscayne Bay on May 11, 2024, after the teen had lost her grip on a tow rope attached to another boat and fallen into the ocean. The whaler struck the stranded Adler, leaving her floating in a large pool of blood in the bay, as Alonso, allegedly unaware of the fatal collision, continued driving and eventually made it back to his $3.5 million Coral Gables home. 3 Charges have been filed against two men in connection with the hit-and-run boating death of 15-year-old wakeboarder Ella Adler. Family Handout Witnesses said he didn't stop or slow down after running over the teen. The Miami high schooler and ballet dancer was celebrating a friend's birthday in Key Biscayne's Nixon Beach when she fatefully lost her grip on the tethered rope. Video showed Alonso calmly docking the boat just after the accident and making no effort to conceal or clean anything on the vessel, his lawyers argued. The 78-year-old was charged on April 28 with two misdemeanor charges for careless operation of a vessel, with officials citing Alonso for infractions of US Coast Guard Rule #5 — failing to keep proper look-out, and Rule #2 — failing in responsibility as a boat operator, Florida Fish and Wildlife announced. He forfeited the Boston Whaler to FFW investigators and has been fully cooperative with the probe, his lawyer previously stated. 3 One of the men charged, 78-year-old Carlos Guillermo Alonso, allegedly struck Adler with his 42-foot Boston Whaler in Biscayne Bay on May 11, 2024. WSVN 3 Video showed Alonso calmly docking the boat just after the accident and making no effort to conceal or clean anything on the vessel. CBS News 'He's a good man, and he is devastated by what has happened,' a lawyer for Alonso said last May. Richard Hartley, 31, who captained the boat that Adler was wakeboarding off of, was also charged with the incident. He faces a charge of careless operation of a vessel on four counts of violations of Coast Guard navigation rules, including Rules 2 and 5, as well as Rule 7, Risk of Collision, and Rule 8, Action to Avoid Collision, the FWC said. Adler was remembered as a talented and passionate dancer whose 'magnetism radiated on the stage, where she belonged and thrived,' according to her obituary. 'You were taken from us way too soon, and the world has been robbed of all the things you could have achieved,' her father Matthew Adler wrote in an emotional letter that was read at the funeral.
Miami Herald
7 days ago
- General
- Miami Herald
Two charged year after Ransom student killed while wakeboarding in Biscayne Bay
Two boaters were charged with misdemeanor careless boating charges in the May 2024 death of a Ransom Everglades School student who was struck by a boat while she and a friend were wakeboarding behind a yacht in Biscayne Bay. Ella Adler, 15, and another girl were being towed by a 42-foot yacht off Nixon Beach in Key Biscayne on May 11, 2024, when she was hit by a 42-foot Boston Whaler driven by 79-year-old Carlos Guillermo Alonso, whose attorneys maintained he never knew he hit Ella. He drove his boat back to his Coral Gables home after striking Adler. The tragedy made international headlines because Ella was the granddaughter of Michael Adler, then the U.S. ambassador to Belgium. Adler was formerly president of the Greater Miami Jewish Federation and vice chair of the Florida International University Board of Trustees. Prosecutors charged Alonso with two counts of careless boating on May 20, court records show. Despite several records requests from the Herald, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission hasn't provided the Herald a copy of its final report, which is usually completed before charges are recommended. Edmund Richard Hartley, 31, the yacht captain towing Adler and another girl, was charged with four counts of careless boating, including one count for not having a lookout to keep an eye on the girls. The 2017 Hanse Fjord yacht Hartley captained is owned by Jonathan Rothberg, a biotech multimillionaire who bought a $23.5-million home on the Venetian Causeway in 2021. Alonso and Hartley pleaded not guilty on May 21. A trial is set for June 30. Attorneys for both Alonso and Hartley did not immediately respond to requests for comment from the Herald. This is a developing story and will be updated.
