Latest news with #GeorgePino
Yahoo
24-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Lawmaker calls for probe into FWC after 4 officers had video footage deleted in Pino crash
A state lawmaker is calling for an independent probe into the state agency that investigated a boat crash in Biscayne Bay that killed a 17-year-old Miami girl after the Miami Herald reported four officers had their body camera footage deleted amid the investigation. 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.'
CBS News
11-05-2025
- CBS News
George Pino deadly boat crash case prompts FWC policy change after bodycam videos deleted
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission is revising its body camera policy following scrutiny over how its officers handled footage from the 2022 Biscayne Bay boat crash involving Miami real estate broker George Pino — a crash that killed 17-year-old Lucy Fernandez and left another teen with a traumatic brain injury. FWC: Policy, not officer misconduct, behind body camera issue In a newly released statement, the FWC Division of Law Enforcement said its review found no wrongdoing by the officers who responded to the crash. Instead, the agency cited a gap in its current policy, which failed to clearly instruct officers in support roles—those who were not lead investigators or directly addressing violations—on how to categorize their body-worn camera (BWC) videos. "In this case, the officers categorized their videos as incidental, which, under the existing policy, was an appropriate classification," the FWC said. "They were not the lead officers on the case, nor were they addressing any violations directly." The agency also emphasized that officers did not delete their footage; rather, the system automatically removes videos after a set retention period based on how they were classified. Revised policy underway to increase accountability The FWC acknowledged that its current policy "did not align with our intent for our officers' documentation responsibilities," and said it is taking immediate steps to revise the guidance. The changes will clarify categorization procedures, especially for officers in non-primary roles, and add expectations for supervisory review. "We are committed to transparency and accountability, and we appreciate the opportunity to address this matter directly," the agency said. The clarification comes amid renewed attention on how the investigation into the 2022 crash was handled, particularly after it was revealed that some witnesses were not contacted and that no sobriety test was administered to Pino at the scene. George Pino surrenders, faces felony charge Pino surrendered to authorities in November 2024 and appeared in court for a hearing related to a felony charge of vessel homicide. Prosecutors say he was piloting a 29-foot boat carrying his daughter and several friends near Boca Chita Key during Labor Day weekend in 2022 when the vessel struck a channel marker, ejecting all passengers and tearing a hole in the hull. Fernandez died from her injuries, and another girl, Katy Puig, was left with a traumatic brain injury. Eleven of the 14 people on board were hurt. Miami-Dade Fire Rescue said Pino claimed another boat caused a large wake and that he crashed while turning to check on the girls. Investigators later recovered 61 empty alcohol containers—including a champagne bottle—from the boat. Though Pino admitted to having "two beers," no field sobriety test was conducted. Legal and family reactions In 2023, the state filed three misdemeanor charges against Pino, which were dropped in favor of the more serious felony count. The felony charge carries a minimum sentence of 15 years in prison. Pino's daughter, Sofia Castellanos, released a statement on behalf of the family in November 2024, expressing remorse and a commitment to supporting the Fernandez and Puig families. "If we could give up our lives to bring Lucy back… we would do so in an instant," she said. Pino's attorney, Howard Srebnick, criticized the timing of the upgraded charge and argued the incident was a tragic accident, not a criminal act. He said Pino was cooperative, followed boating regulations, and made "heroic efforts" to rescue passengers despite his own injuries. Investigation questions remain The Miami Herald previously reported that three eyewitnesses said they were never contacted by either the FWC or the State Attorney's Office. The Fernandez family's attorney, Joel Denaro, said new witness statements and the presence of alcohol led prosecutors to file the more serious charge. "There's no question that alcohol was a factor," Denaro said. "And with the discovery of the new witness, it became clear that this was a factor that contributed to the accident."
Miami Herald
24-03-2025
- Miami Herald
Experts to inspect George Pino's boat. Trial for fatal vessel crash planned for July
The 29-foot boat involved in a deadly 2022 Labor Day weekend crash that killed an Our Lady of Lourdes Academy senior and permanently disabled her classmate is the latest focus in the felony case against Miami-Dade real estate broker George Pino. Both Miami-Dade State Attorney's Office prosecutors and Pino's defense attorneys plan to have experts inspect the Robalo center console early next month. 'The state has retained an accident reconstructionist as well as a marine mechanic expert. They are going to be present for the inspection,' Assistant State Attorney Laura Adams said during a status hearing on the case at the Miami-Dade County courthouse Friday morning. On Sept. 4, 2022, George Pino was operating the boat through a channel in Biscayne Bay, heading back to Ocean Reef Club in north Key Largo from an outing celebrating his daughter's 18th birthday on Elliott Key. His wife, Cecilia, and 11 of his daughter's friends were on the vessel when Pino slammed it into a fixed channel marker at a high rate of speed, ejecting and injuring everyone on board. READ MORE: How investigators, prosecutors bungled probe into boat crash that killed teen girl After a nearly year-long investigation by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, the state police agency that investigates boat crashes, prosecutors in August 2023 charged Pino with three misdemeanor counts of careless boating. The minor charge, which carries a maximum sentence of 60 days in jail, outraged the families of Luciana Fernandez — who died from her injuries in the hospital the day after the crash at the age of 17 — and of Katerina Puig, now 19, a standout soccer player who was left with a lifetime of disabilities. After a series of articles by the Miami Herald showing police and prosecutors never followed up with key eyewitnesses, a new witness approached prosecutors, a Miami-Dade firefighter who fished Pino out of the water that day, who told them that, in his opinion, Pino showed signs he had been drinking. READ MORE: Prosecutors didn't talk to eyewitness before filing misdemeanor charges in deadly boat crash This prompted the State Attorney's Office in late October to re-open its investigation and drop the misdemeanor counts and charge Pino — president of State Street Realty in Doral — with felony vessel homicide, a form of manslaughter in which a person kills another due to the reckless operation of a boat. He now faces 15 years in prison if convicted. Another controversy surrounding the first investigations by the FWC and State Attorney's Office is that alcohol was immediately ruled out despite Pino telling police that night that he had 'two beers' prior to the crash, and that investigators found more than 60 empty containers of various forms of alcohol on board his boat when they pulled it from the water the next day. READ MORE: 61 booze containers on crashed boat in Keys — and parents outraged over minor charges Pino, 54, pleaded not guilty to both the misdemeanor counts and now to the felony counts, maintaining — despite contrary statements from witnesses and photographic evidence from on the water that day — that a larger boat traveling in the opposite direction threw a wake that caused him to lose control of his Robalo. Pino's attorney, Howard Srebnick, issued a statement Friday saying prosecutors have yet to provide evidence or witnesses supporting elevating the case to a felony. 'This month we will continue to engage key prosecution witnesses through depositions and are confident that none of the State's witnesses will offer any evidence that this tragedy was anything more than a horrible accident, not a crime,' Srebnick said. A trial is scheduled for July. Mark Shapiro, another attorney for Pino, told Circuit Judge Marisa Tinkler Mendez Friday that his team is set to begin taking depositions from witnesses, including police officers who responded to the scene that day, and the depositions are expected to continue through March. Both sides plan to inspect the boat in early March. The vessel is parked, wrapped in plastic, at FWC's North Miami Beach headquarters, Adams said, adding it 'sustained massive damage' in the crash.
