Lawsuit over lost teenage boaters heating up
Boys still listed as ‘missing;’ parents battle over blame
Three years after Tequesta teen boaters Austin Stephanos and Perry Cohen disappeared at sea, authorities still list the boys as missing persons.
But their families long ago gave up hope for a miraculous reunion. Today the teens’ loved ones are enemies in an increasingly acrimonious court fight.
Perry’s folks consider Austin’s parents responsible for the tragedy and want them to pay a steep price for their loss.
A wrongful death lawsuit filed by the Cohens 13 months ago contains numerous allegations of negligence by Austin’s
mother and father before and after the 14-year-old friends vanished during a July 24, 2015, fishing trip.
On the surface, though, a few facts are undisputed:
Perry slept over at Austin’s house the previous night, and in the morning they got ready to go fishing aboard an 18-foot, single-engine 1978 SeaCraft, which was registered to Austin’s mom.
The boys were last seen before 11 a.m. at a Jupiter Island marina, where they spent about $100 on gas. Austin sent text messages to both parents about 11:25 a.m.
Officials say the boat passed through the Jupiter Inlet and navigated offshore in the Atlantic. A severe thunderstorm reached the area about 1:30 p.m., and the teens never returned.
The disappearance became a national news story, and concern for the boys prompted weeks of searching waters from Jupiter to North Carolina by the U.S. Coast Guard, law enforcement agencies and private groups.
Once it was clear the boys were gone, sadness turned to anger and blame, and lawyers took over.
“This wasn’t a case of bad luck or simply bad weather,” insisted Guy Rubin, attorney for Perry’s mother, Pamela Cohen, when the lawsuit began.
Wrongful death claims
Among the accusations facing Austin’s mother, Carly Black:
■ She allowed the boys to go out on the ocean aboard a boat that was “unseaworthy”
because it lacked a radio that would be helpful in a storm.
■ She violated Cohen’s orders that Perry wasn’t allowed to go offshore without an adult and without Cohen’s permission.
■ She failed to “watch over and supervise children too young to exercise judgment to care for themselves and protect them from foreseeable hazards and harm.”
Black’s “egregious lapse in judgment and failure to exercise due care had the effect of culminating in the disappearance of both boys who are now believed to have perished in the mishap,” the lawsuit charges.
There are also specific criticisms leveled against Austin’s father, Blu Stephanos, who is no longer married to Black and didn’t have custody of Austin. These are:
■ He “impeded the search” for the boys by failing to call 911 or Perry’s parents as soon as Black texted and called Stephanos to say the boys were missing.
■ He then made matters worse by deciding to conduct his own search first, and not telling authorities where he had already looked.
“By undertaking his own search for the boys, he delayed the official duties of law enforcement and military assistance in the most critical moments of a search and rescue operation when every minute counts,” the suit reads.
All of these claims have been met by sharp rebuttals from attorneys representing the parents. They’ve also blasted the fact that the Cohens are causing more pain by bringing the lawsuit.
“This loss was a tragedy for both families, and this course of protracted litigation chosen by the Cohen family will not bring the boys back,” Black said in a statement released by her lawyer. “Now, everyone will be forced to relive this horrible nightmare on a daily basis in order to defend this lawsuit and to prepare for trial.”
She’s also denied the allegations in court documents, and her lawyers argue that her potential liability should be limited under federal maritime laws to $500 — the cost of the boat.
The vessel was found and recovered in March 2016 by a Norwegian supply ship about 170 miles east of Bermuda. Austin’s saltwater-damaged iPhone was picked up too, but not even Apple technicians could extract data from it.
One of the father’s attorneys, Michael Pike, told the South Florida Sun Sentinel that Stephanos should not be a target of the lawsuit.
“Blu mourns for the tragic losses along with everyone in this community, but he vehemently disputes he had anything to do with causing or contributing to this tragedy,” Pike said.
He specifically took issue with the allegation that Stephanos is fault for not calling 911.
“Just imagine a child does not come home on time from a bike ride and the parent first drives around looking for the child before the police are called,” Pike explained. “Under the plaintiff’s theory, if tragedy struck, this would impose liability on the parent who first went to search; however, the law does not work that way nor should it.” at
Official reports
In an attempt to find clues about the boys’ fate, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission led a forensic investigation of the recovered boat.
The conclusion of the boat motor manufacturer, Yamaha, and an independent marine consultant: The 2005 motor was working and stormy weather caused the boat to capsize.
Also last year, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement released a report indicating the agency opened a criminal investigation in late 2016.
A special agent concluded there were violations of a state law against child neglect, by permitting the boys to “go offshore into the Atlantic Ocean, an inherently dangerous environment, in a minimally equipped ... boat ... without adult or parental supervision.”
While the boat was “fundamentally sound,” it had no communications equipment that “would have made a successful rescue infinitely more probable,” the agent wrote.
Moreover, the report criticized Austin’s family for not contacting Perry’s parents or the authorities after “they knew or should have known that the boys were in imminent danger.”
But the Palm Beach County State Attorney’s Office declined to file charges. Prosecutor Greg Kridos wrote that even if a member of Austin’s family used poor judgment, “boating on the open seas is not an ‘inherently dangerous activity.’ ”
Stephanos’ legal team contends the father is blameless.
“To be abundantly clear, Blu did nothing wrong,” attorney Chris Moore said. “He did not have custody of his son when [the teens] went out. He did not own the boat. He did not know they were going out.”
Moore added, “Blu has cooperated fully with the legal authorities and spent several days looking for these kids in a friend’s helicopter.”
Latest squabbles
Circuit Judge Jeffrey Gillen this month issued rulings concerning attempts by both sides to stop each other from digging for information.
The first concerns the release of a report about a private search conducted in August 2015 off the coast of Georgia by a Gainesville firm, Six Maritime.
The Cohen estate objected to providing the report to Austin’s parents and their attorneys, charging that they would give it to the media. They also said the report contains some mistakes that would mislead the public.
While this report has never been disclosed, several details and quotes from it were provided in the investigation by state law enforcement agents.
The report states that “debris and potential survivors” may have made landfall near Savannah. It notes the discovery of life vests and a seat cushion and that a canine named Quincy alerted to the boys’ scents on the vests.
The Six Maritime report concludes “the boys, more than likely, remained together until they were pushed by the currents into the (offshore) areas of Northern Georgia.”
Judge Gillen has ruled that Austin’s parents and counsel are entitled to a copy of the report, but they are forbidden from releasing it.
In a separate ruling, the judge ordered a limited examination of Blu Stephanos’ cellphone by a “neutral expert,” so the Cohen estate’s lawyers can obtain his text messages and GPS location during his search on the day the boys went missing.
Stephanos wants the judge to release him from the suit.
“He was not wrong for trying to look for his own son,” his attorneys wrote. “The Cohen estate’s complaint wants to blame Blu for trying to help.”