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Miami Herald
2 days ago
- Miami Herald
FWC chair, Miami-Dade State Attorney texted about Pino boat crash, records show
The head of the state agency that investigated the boat crash that killed a teenage girl texted the Miami-Dade State Attorney several times about the case as they were considering what charges to file against the boat operator, even though he said he was minimally involved in the investigation, according to text messages obtained by the Miami Herald. Rodney Barreto, chair of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, and Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle exchanged at least nine texts — mostly in the months after the September 2022 crash — according to the heavily redacted records. The Herald obtained the texts when it requested all discovery materials provided to the defense team of George Pino, 54, who has been charged with felony vessel homicide after slamming his 29-foot Robalo into a concrete marker in Biscayne Bay, leading to the death of 17-year-old Luciana 'Lucy' Fernandez. The State Attorney's Office told the Herald Wednesday night that the messages had been accidentally provided to the Herald and were not turned over in discovery. Texting months after the crash In the first message, dated March 14, 2023 — six months after the crash — Fernandez Rundle texted Barreto, 'May I call you today reference the boat accident?' 'OK,' Barreto responded after he and Fernandez Rundle agreed to speak in 25 minutes. Other parts of the text thread were redacted. Months later, on June 6, 2023, Barreto shared a text with Rundle that he had received from Lucy's father, Andres Fernandez. Fernandez was expressing his frustration with the FWC and State Attorney's Office for not concluding their investigation. By that point — nine months after the crash — Pino hadn't been charged with any crimes. 'It's been close to 3 months since FWC and SAO cancelled our meeting and my understanding was that it was not going to be a significant delay,' the Fernandez text said. 'I'm sorry to bother you with this but I'm really frustrated and out of patience. My family and I need this for closure and no one really cares. Would love to hear your thoughts.' Portions of the text thread were redacted. However, hours later, Barreto texted Fernandez Rundle again: 'Kathy, please call to discuss this.' Joel Denaro, the attorney for Andres and Melissa Fernandez, Lucy's mother, declined to comment on the texts. 'The Fernandez Family is not prepared to make a statement at this time because of the pending criminal litigation and because they need time to process what they are learning,' Denaro told the Herald. On Aug. 1, 2023, Fernandez Rundle texted Barreto, 'GM! Was trying to reach you regarding the boating case.' The other text messages were redacted. Later that month, the State Attorney's Office, working with the FWC, charged Pino with three counts of careless boating in the crash, criminal misdemeanors punishable by up to 60 days in jail for each count. READ MORE: Injured girl's family 'outraged' at minor charges in fatal Florida Keys boat crash probe On May 13, 2024, Barreto texted Fernandez Rundle again, 'He gave consent to remove props and dive the hull,' referencing Pino's consent to search his boat. Fernandez Rundle responded with a thumbs up. The rest of the exchange was redacted. The day after the crash, FWC investigators found 61 empty booze bottles and cans on the boat, which they had pulled from the water after it had capsized in the crash. Pino's attorney, Howard Srebnick, said the empty containers stemmed from five boats tied up that day on Elliott Key, but hasn't disclosed the boaters' names. In a statement Friday morning, the family of Katerina 'Katy' Puig, the now 20-year-old who was seriously injured and is still relearning how to walk after the crash, said they are 'forced to confront the deeply troubling reality that continues to emerge from the handing of this case. 'Katy's parents are still processing these painful recent revelations,' the statement said. 'Their sorrow continues to be compounded by shock, disbelief, and disgust. While we are relieved and grateful that Mr. Pino was finally charged with the appropriate felony—Vessel Homicide—the path to that charge has been littered with incompetence, misconduct and missteps that can only be described as a mockery of justice.' The family is calling on legislators to probe the FWC's investigation of the crash. Barreto: Involved in policy, not investigations On Wednesday, Barreto told the Herald that his involvement in the Pino probe was minimal and said his conversations with Fernandez Rundle mostly involved how the FWC and the State Attorney's Office could work together better on boat cases involving fatalities and serious injuries. At one point, Barreto said he brought FWC's leadership from Tallahassee to meet with Fernandez Rundle's office. Barreto had previously told the Herald his role at the FWC is policy making, not the law enforcement aspect of the agency. FWC police officers investigate boating accidents. 'I do not get in the way of these investigations,' Barreto told the Herald two weeks ago. 'We're gonna call it like it is. We've got no dog in this fight. It doesn't matter who these people are.' Last month, a video surfaced of Barreto speaking on a radio show weeks after the crash and acknowledging to the hosts that he knew Pino personally. Barreto told the Herald that he knows Pino, but not well, and has never spoken with him about the case. Barreto is a Coral Gables developer; Pino is a Doral real estate broker. READ MORE: State Senate confirms Barreto as FWC chair, despite dozens urging senators to block his bid Barreto said he talks to Fernandez Rundle often because they have known each other for decades, since he was a Miami police officer and Fernandez Rundle was a prosecutor under former State Attorney Janet Reno. 'Basically, I've known her my entire adult life,' Barreto said. Miami-Dade State Attorney's Office spokesperson Ed Griffith acknowledged the two have worked together often and said Barreto has also 'often lent the State Attorney his support and voice during the Florida Legislative session.' 'Years of interactions have made State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle and Chairman Rodney Barreto both friends and effective working associates, so I would naturally expect numerous conversations between the two on a wide range of issues and topics,' Griffith said in a statement to the Herald Wednesday. No sobriety test On the night of the crash, FWC investigators did not give Pino a sobriety test, even though they are trained to do so in boating accidents with serious injuries. Investigators on the scene knew that four of the 14 people on the boat were airlifted as trauma alert patients by Miami-Dade Fire Rescue, including Lucy Fernandez, who died the next day in the hospital. In addition, Pino told FWC investigators on the scene that he had 'two beers' that day. The Pinos were celebrating their daughter's 18th birthday and she had invited 11 of her close girlfriends — all underage — to go on the Sept. 4, 2022, outing to Elliott Key in Biscayne Bay. The FWC has maintained it did not have probable cause to get a warrant to force Pino to take a sobriety test. But the FWC could have contacted the State Attorney's Office, which has a prosecutor on call 24/7 to help officers get a search warrant, arrest warrants and court orders in these types of cases. In fact, the second page of a State Attorney Office's slideshow for the FWC on vessel homicides gives the hotline number for the prosecutors. The FWC didn't call. READ MORE: How investigators, prosecutors bungled probe into boat crash that killed teen girl Missing FWC body camera footage In recent weeks, the Herald reported that John Dalton, a Miami-Dade Sheriff's Office detective who was on the scene of the crash, said in a deposition that he suggested that FWC officers test Pino for alcohol that night. 'Well, yes. Obviously, you can do a blood draw,' Dalton told one of the FWC officers on the scene, according to the testimony he gave to a Pino attorney and prosecutor. 'I mean, [Pino's] involved in a crash that has potential for a fatality or serious bodily injury. You can force a blood draw on him with a warrant. And you can take one right now, with exigent circumstances. You have fire-rescue here. It's something you might be able to do right now.' READ MORE: Miami-Dade cop suggested FWC should do alcohol test at Pino boat crash scene, testimony shows The Herald also reported that the body camera footage of four FWC officers who were in close proximity to Pino that night — Julien Gazzola, Keith Hernandez, Hanna Hayden and Jesse Whitt — was deleted. Gazzola told an attorney for Pino that Pino smelled of alcohol, had 'bloodshot eyes' and was disoriented. None of the officers, aside from Gazzola, reported seeing signs that Pino was impaired. The FWC says the officers' 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. Rep. Vicki Lopez, the Miami-Dade state House member who sponsored 'Lucy's Law,' which calls for tougher penalties for boat operators in crashes with serious injury starting July 1, has called on her colleagues in the Legislature to investigate how the officers' footage was deleted. Pino was initially charged with three misdemeanors but those charges were upgraded to a felony vessel homicide charge on Oct. 31. The State Attorney's Office reopened its investigation after a Miami-Dade firefighter at the scene came forward and said he observed Pino showing signs of intoxication that day. The firefighter spoke up following a series of Miami Herald articles detailing flaws in the investigation, including FWC officers never following up with eyewitnesses. Pino has pleaded not guilty and is tentatively scheduled to stand trial in September. If convicted, he faces up to 15 years in prison.
Miami Herald
23-05-2025
- Politics
- Miami Herald
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.' READ MORE: 'Lucy's Law,' named after teen killed in Biscayne Bay boat crash, passes in session's final hours 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. '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 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. 'Full investigation is warranted' 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. No evidence of other boat in channel coming toward him 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.'
Miami Herald
13-05-2025
- Miami Herald
‘Just another boating accident.' FWC officer says why body cam was deleted in Pino crash
The state police officer whose body camera footage was deleted from the scene of a boat crash that killed a 17-year-old girl said he considered it 'just another boating accident' and thus didn't take steps to preserve the video for a criminal investigation, according to newly filed court records. Yet when he filed his footage, the lead investigators at the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission were already discussing criminal charges against George Pino, the boat's operator. FWC Officer Keith Hernandez also contradicted the sworn statement of another FWC officer on the scene, who said Pino had bloodshot eyes, smelled of alcohol and had a 'flustered demeanor.' Hernandez, in a deposition obtained Monday by the Herald, said he didn't notice any signs of Pino being drunk. That differs from what FWC officer Julien Gazzola said in his deposition last month. Both Hernandez and Gazzola's body camera footage from the crash scene was deleted after they classified the footage 'incidental,' not criminal, when they uploaded it into the FWC's system. 'Incidental' footage is automatically deleted after 90 days, according to the FWC's policy. At the time Hernandez uploaded his footage, all 14 people on Pino's 29-foot Robalo were injured after Pino slammed into a fixed channel marker in Biscayne Bay, causing the boat to capsize. Three of the 12 teenage girls on the boat were found unconscious in the water. Pino and his wife had invited the girls on the boat outing to celebrate the 18th birthday of their daughter, Cecilia. One girl, 17-year-old Luciana 'Lucy' Fernandez, died the next day in the hospital. Her classmate at Our Lady of Lourdes Academy, Katerina 'Katy' Puig, now 19, was left with permanent injuries and is still relearning to walk. The third unconscious girl, then 16-year-old Isabella Rodriguez, who suffered a head injury and brain bleed, has since recovered. Awaiting trial on felony charge Pino is now awaiting trial on a felony vessel homicide charge, which carries a sentence of up to 15 years in prison, if there's a conviction. He was initially charged with only three misdemeanor counts of careless boating, which carried a sentence of 60 days in jail. The Miami-Dade State Attorney's Office upped the charge to a felony after a series of Miami Herald articles detailed a flawed investigation from the beginning. READ MORE: How investigators, prosecutors bungled probe into boat crash that killed teen girl The smell test Hernandez interacted with Pino on the night of the crash. Lead FWC investigator William Thompson spoke to Hernandez as he and Pino were on boat heading to a triage center set up on Elliott Key, where Thompson eventually questioned Pino that night. As the boat pulled away from Thompson's vessel, Thompson yelled toward Hernandez, 'Keith Hernandez!' He then tells him quietly, 'Smell,' indicating he wanted Hernandez to smell Pino for alcohol. Hernandez was escorting Pino to the ranger station, where the injured passengers were taken. While Pino received medical attention from paramedics, Pino 'stated that he had 2 beers total for the day' and recounted the events leading up to the crash, according to Hernandez's supplemental report. Hernandez was asked during his deposition if he noticed Pino showing signs of impairment. 'Did Mr. Pino have an odor of alcohol that you noticed?' Mark Shapiro, an attorney for Pino, asked Hernandez, the court records show. 'Not that I noticed,' he replied. 'Did you notice if Mr. Pino had bloodshot eyes?' 'Not that I saw,' he said. READ MORE: Pino smelled of alcohol, had 'bloodshot eyes' after deadly boat crash, FWC cop says The FWC didn't give Pino a sobriety test the night of the Sept. 4, 2022, crash, despite his admission to officers that he had '2 beers' that day. The FWC said it didn't have probable cause to get a warrant to force Pino to take a sobriety test that night. But training manuals from both the FWC and State Attorney's Office list significant injuries and deaths as probable cause for a blood draw in a sobriety test, the Herald's investigation found. The next day, the FWC found 61 empty booze bottles and cans on the boat, which had been carrying 12 underage girls. Pino's defense attorney, Howard Srebnick, said the empty containers stemmed from five boats tied up that day on Elliott Key. With Hernandez and Gazzola's body camera footage deleted, there is no video evidence to corroborate what either officer said in their sworn statements. FWC changes its story about deleted footage When the Herald reported last week that Hernandez's footage was also deleted, the FWC said it was because of 'human error' on both officers' parts. A day after the Herald published its story, the FWC changed its position, saying the agency's policy on body-worn cameras 'lacks clear guidance for officers who are present on the scene in a supporting role, rather than as primary investigators or arresting officers.' 'The policy is now under revision to provide clearer direction, particularly regarding supervisory review and categorization expectations in such scenarios,' FWC spokeswoman Ashlee Sklute said Friday. The FWC's record-retention policy says body camera footage related to misdemeanor charges must be stored for five years and a felony charge for 13 years, according to FWC records obtained by the Herald through public records requests. READ MORE: Why was officers' body cam video deleted in Pino boat-crash case? FWC blames its unclear policy What remains unclear is why the officers were labeling their footage as if the crash were a minor incident when FWC investigators were mulling charging Pino with felony reckless boating just days after the crash, according to the Herald's investigation into the crash. Four days after the crash, the FWC and the Miami-Dade State Attorney's Office were contemplating misdemeanor criminal charges for Pino, according to a text conversation between Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle and FWC Lt. Col. Alfredo Escanio, the deputy director of the south region, according to records the Herald obtained through a public records request. The FWC has not responded to questions asking why the lead investigators on the case didn't relabel the footage to retain it as evidence. Lt. Daniel Miranda, the immediate supervisor of the lead investigator, William Thompson, told Pino's attorney in March in a sworn statement that he and Thompson both thought Pino was driving recklessly when he rode on the wrong side of the wide channel, did not swerve before hitting the marker and slammed into the concrete marker at nearly 50 mph. 'You know, we felt that his actions constituted a reckless operation of the vessel,' Miranda said. Miranda deferred to Thompson's conclusion in his final report, which stated: 'Pino's actions did not constitute as reckless operation,' only careless boating, which led to the initial misdemeanor charges. Reckless boating would be a felony. In the end, Miranda added, the decision on the severity of the charges came down to the State Attorney's Office, and Assistant State Attorney Ruben Scolavino told the FWC the evidence investigators had wasn't strong enough to warrant a felony. 'We don't want anything like this to happen to anyone, you know. This accident happened. It killed, you know, some young ladies. And obviously, you know, we don't want any of this to happen, but we have our due diligence to do our work and to do an investigative report,' Miranda said in his sworn statement. 'So we felt as investigators that this had reached a level of a felony charge for a vessel homicide. There was a discussion with the state attorney, and they felt different.' Thompson didn't respond to questions from the Herald Tuesday, but Miranda stressed the final decision was up to the State Attorney's Office, which declined to comment about the case. 'We felt that we had this, but in discussions with the state attorney, you know, they felt that we weren't there yet. Or we weren't there,' Miranda said.
Miami Herald
10-05-2025
- Miami Herald
Why was officers' body cam video deleted in Pino boat-crash case? FWC blames its unclear policy
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission said it was revising its officer-worn body camera policy a day after the Miami Herald reported that footage from two officers who were on the scene of a high-profile, fatal boat crash was deleted. The Herald reported Thursday that body camera footage from a second FWC officer who interacted with George Pino, the operator of the 29-foot Robalo that crashed into a Biscayne Bay channel marker in September 2022, had disappeared from the agency's database. The Herald reported last month that the footage from the camera of another officer — who told Pino's attorneys that he believed the Doral real estate broker was drunk the day of the crash — was also gone. The FWC said the reason both officers' footage was deleted was because the officers categorized it as 'incidental' when they uploaded it instead of labeling it as part of a criminal investigation. Anything labeled 'incidental' gets deleted from the system 90 days after it's submitted. READ MORE: Second body cam video deleted after George Pino boat crash, FWC says FWC spokesperson Ashlee Sklute on Thursday said footage being labeled 'incidental' was 'human error' on the part of officers Julien Gazzola and Keith Hernandez. On Friday, however, the agency released a statement changing its stance on the officers' actions 'after thorough review.' The officers' classifications of their videos 'were within the bounds of the policy as it is currently written,' according to the FWC, but 'it is clear that the policy did not align with our intent for our officers' documentation responsibilities.' 'We acknowledge that this gap in policy has led to understandable concern, and we are taking steps to correct it,' Sklute said. 'The policy is now under revision to provide clearer direction, particularly regarding supervisory review and categorization expectations in such scenarios.' The current policy 'lacks clear guidance for officers who are present on the scene in a supporting role, rather than as primary investigators or arresting officers,' according to Sklute. Gazzola and Hernandez weren't lead officers that night 'nor were they addressing any violations directly,' Sklute said. However, the lead investigator on the scene that night, William Thompson, did tell Hernandez to check Pino for signs of drinking, according to Thompson's body camera footage. Pino was on a boat with Hernandez and other officers. As Thompson pulled away from that patrol boat, he stressed to Hernandez to 'smell' to determine if Pino had been drinking, the footage shows. Hernandez was interviewed by Pino's attorneys last week with Miami-Dade State Attorney's Office prosecutors present. Transcripts from that proceeding were not yet public as of Friday. A flawed probe The boat crash and the subsequent investigation continue to reverberate throughout South Florida. It marked the tragic end to a day that was supposed to be an 18th birthday celebration for Pino's daughter with an outing on Elliott Key and then a dinner at the Ocean Reef Club in north Key Largo. But, on the way back to the Ocean Reef Club, Pino rammed his 29-foot Robalo into a channel marker in Biscayne Bay. The boat capsized, hurtling Pino, his wife, his daughter and 11 of her teenage friends into the water. Among them were Luciana 'Lucy' Fernandez, 17, and Katerina 'Katy' Puig, now 19. Lucy was trapped under Pino's boat and died in a hospital the next day. Katy, a star soccer player, was left with permanent disabilities and is relearning to walk. Lucy's parents, Melissa and Andres Fernandez, have since devoted their time to promoting boater safety, most recently successfully pressing for the passage of a law in the Legislature in their daughter's name. Lucy's Law, among other things, stiffens the penalties for seriously injuring someone in a boat crash. READ MORE: 'Lucy's Law,' named after teen killed in Biscayne Bay boat crash, passes in session's final hours The families of both girls, however, remain outraged about how the probe into the crash was handled by the FWC and the Miami-Dade State Attorney's Office. Almost a year after the crash, prosecutors charged Pino with three misdemeanor counts of careless boating. The FWC concluded Pino was not impaired that day despite officers finding more than 60 empty alcohol bottles and cans on his boat when they pulled it from the water the day after the crash, and Pino telling Thompson, the lead investigator, that he had 'two beers' when Thompson asked him to voluntarily submit blood to test for alcohol. READ MORE: How investigators, prosecutors bungled probe into boat crash that killed teen girl The Fernandezes and Puigs are also frustrated that Pino maintains that another boat traveling toward his Robalo threw a wake that caused him to lose control of his vessel. No witnesses on his boat, nor witnesses on other boats in the channel saw that boat, according to Thompson's report. After a 2024 series of Miami Herald articles containing interviews with witnesses who were never contacted by investigators from either agency, another witness, a Miami-Dade County firefighter who pulled Pino from the water, came forward and said Pino showed signs of impairment in his opinion. Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle then reopened the case and charged Pino with vessel homicide, punishable by up to 15 years in prison. Pino's attorney, Howard Srebnick, criticized the FWC in a statement Friday, saying the loss of Gazzola's body camera footage hurts Pino's possibilities of having a fair trial, given the officer's testimony that Pino showed signs of being drunk. 'The deletion of Gazzola's [body-worn camera] footage prevents Mr. Pino from allowing a jury to see for itself that Gazzola's contradicted allegations about Pino, and the innuendo of his impairment, are categorically false,' Srebnick said.
Miami Herald
08-05-2025
- Miami Herald
Second body-cam video deleted after George Pino boat crash, FWC says
The body camera footage of a second officer at the scene of a Biscayne Bay boat crash that killed a teenage girl — asked by his boss to 'smell' the boat operator to see if he could detect alcohol — has been deleted, the Miami Herald confirmed Thursday with the state agency that investigated the crash. This marks the second time within four weeks that the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, responding to the Herald's questioning, admitted that two of its officers at the crash scene who were watching over George Pino, the boat operator, deleted their body camera footage. Body-camera footage has to be retained in criminal investigations, the FWC's own policy stipulates. In this latest deletion, FWC Officer Keith Hernandez, the one asked to smell Pino for alcohol, mislabeled his body camera footage when he uploaded it, causing it to be deleted after 90 days, FWC spokesperson Ashlee Sklute said Thursday. The revelation came after the Herald requested Hernandez's body camera footage from the night of the crash, Sept. 4, 2022, and was told there was none. 'At this time, we do not have an explanation beyond human error for why the officers mislabeled their recordings in the audio storage system,' Sklute said. Hernandez is one of a handful of FWC officers who had direct access to Pino after the crash. His conservation with his boss, William Thompson, the lead FWC investigator, about smelling Pino was captured on Thompson's body cam footage. Thompson spoke to Hernandez as he and Pino were on boat heading to a triage center set up on Elliott Key, where Thompson eventually questioned Pino that night. As the boat pulls away from Thompson's vessel, Thomson yelled toward Hernandez, 'Keith Hernandez!' He then tells him quietly, 'Smell,' indicating he wanted Hernandez to smell Pino for alcohol. Hernandez was escorting Pino to the ranger station, where the injured passengers were taken, according to Thompson's body cam footage. While Pino received medical attention from paramedics, Pino 'stated that he has 2 beers total for the day' and recounted the events leading up to the crash, according to Thompson's body-cam footage. Pino's attorneys interviewed Hernandez last week, but transcripts of that proceeding were not available as of Thursday. The other officer whose body camera footage was deleted from that night, Julien Gazzola, gave a sworn statement to prosecutors and Pino's lawyers in April. He told them Pino appeared intoxicated that night, noting he had bloodshot eyes when he shined a flashlight on his face, was disoriented and smelled of alcohol. The FWC also said Gazzola's footage was deleted because the officer mislabeled it. READ MORE: How investigators, prosecutors bungled probe into boat crash that killed teen girl Pino rammed his 29-foot Robalo into a fixed channel marker in Biscayne Bay that night. He and his wife Cecilia were celebrating their daughter's 18th birthday and had invited 11 of her teenage girlfriends to join them in the boat outing. They were returning from Elliott Key to the Ocean Reef Club when the boat hit the marker, causing it to capsize and hurtling the passengers into the bay. Luciana 'Lucy' Fernandez, 17, died after being trapped under the boat. Katerina 'Katy' Puig, her classmate at Our Lady of Lourdes Academy, suffered traumatic brain injury and is relearning how to walk after the crash. READ MORE: Pino smelled of alcohol, had 'bloodshot eyes' after deadly boat crash, FWC cop says When reached Thursday, the Fernandezes declined to comment on the missing footage. 'Since the criminal case remains pending, we will not be making any comments at this time,' Melissa and Andres Fernandez said in a text to the Herald. FWC's policy says footage must be kept in criminal investigation When asked about Gazzola's footage being deleted, FWC chair Rodney Barreto told the Herald that the officer 'mistakenly classified his body-worn camera footage as 'incidental' when he uploaded it to the FWC's body camera system.' Because the footage wasn't classified as being part of a criminal investigation, it was automatically deleted by the system after 90 days, Barreto said. 'Our technology team has looked into the issue, but the footage is not available,' Barreto said. Four days after the crash, the FWC and the Miami-Dade State Attorney's Office were already contemplating misdemeanor criminal charges for Pino, according to a text conversation between Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle and FWC Lt. Col. Alfredo Escanio, the deputy director of the south region, which the Herald obtained through a public records request. Escanio asked Fernandez Rundle for contact information for the chief of the misdemeanor section at the State Attorney's Office. She provided it and noted the chief would be expecting the FWC's call. If body-cam footage is part of a criminal investigation, it must be retained, legal experts say. In fact, the FWC's own record-retention policy says body-camera footage related to misdemeanor charges must be stored for five years and a felony charge for 13 years, according to FWC records obtained by the Herald through public records requests. Footage labeled as 'incidental' — which is how the FWC says its two officers labeled their footage — includes encounters where people are issued warnings or non-criminal infraction citations, the policy says. It's stored only for 90 days. Felony charge after Herald investigation Pino was initially charged with three misdemeanor counts of careless boating in August 2023, although the State Attorney's Office upgraded those charges to vessel homicide, a felony punishable by up to 15 years in prison, on Oct. 31, after a Miami Herald investigation into the crash. The Herald's investigation led to new witnesses coming forward, prompting the Miami-Dade State Attorney's Office to reevaluate its case, drop the three misdemeanors and charge Pino with the second-degree felony, which also carries a $10,000 fine. The Herald's investigation detailed a flawed probe by FWC investigators, including key witnesses who were never contacted and the FWC deciding not to give a Pino a sobriety test at the scene despite him telling investigators he had been drinking that day. The FWC said it did not have probable cause to get a warrant to force Pino to take the sobriety test. But training manuals from both the FWC and State Attorney's Office list significant injuries and deaths as probable cause for a blood draw in a sobriety test, the Herald investigation found. The day after the crash, the FWC found more than 60 empty booze containers on the boat. Pino's defense attorney, Howard Srebnick, said the empty booze containers found on Pino's boat stemmed from five boats tied up that day on Elliott Key. Thompson, the FWC lead investigator in the case, wrote in his final report that the reason Pino declined to voluntarily submit blood to test for alcohol consumption because his lawyer wasn't present. However, in Thompson's body camera footage of the conversation, Pino declined because he had 'two beers.' That admission was not mentioned in Thompson's report. Pino has pleaded not guilty. More missing evidence? The two missing body camera files are actually the third pieces of evidence that have disappeared, says an attorney for the Fernandez family. A few weeks before the FWC filed its final report on the crash investigation in August 2023, the agency briefed the victims' families on the evidence. Among the evidence investigators told the families existed were photos taken from a camera affixed to a channel marker by the feds to keep an eye on human smuggling via the waterways. That camera took intermittent shots of the waterway facing north in the 15 minutes leading up to the crash. Pino had told the FWC that another boat heading toward his vessel threw a wake and caused him to lose control and crash into the channel marker. But, no witnesses on Pino's boat nor on any other boat in the channel that day saw that boat, according to the FWC's report. Investigators told the families that they reviewed the shots from the camera on the channel marker and did not find evidence of another vessel heading toward Pino's boat, the families told the Herald last summer. The final report mentions that photographic evidence refutes Pino's claim of another boat, however, it does not mention where the photographs came from. When the Fernandez family's attorney, Joel Denaro, filed a motion seeking that footage, he was told it no longer existed.
