The captain of a scuba dive boat in California has been charged with misconduct in connection to a fire that killed 34 people in 2019. He faces 10 years behind bars if convicted.
By the time the scuba dive boat sank off the Southern California coast after catching fire, 34 people had been killed in the deadliest maritime disaster in recent U.S. history. The Labor Day tragedy in 2019 spurred changes to maritime regulations, congressional reform and civil lawsuits. Now four years later, a federal trial for the Conception's captain, Jerry Boylan, is set to begin Tuesday with jury selection in Los Angeles.
The past four years have been like living in a nightmare that you don’t wake up from,' said Kathleen McIlvain, whose 44-year-old son Charles was killed. The 75-foot boat was anchored off the Channel Islands, about 25 miles south of Santa Barbara, on Sept. 2, 2019, when it caught fire before dawn on the last day of a three-day excursion, sinking less than 100 feet from shore.
District Judge George Wu on Oct. 12 granted Boylan's request to bar most if not all references to 'victims' — which the captain's attorneys say is a prejudicial term that jeopardizes his right to a fair trial. It's the latest setback for the prosecution.
What exactly started the predawn fire remains unknown. Early official scrutiny appeared to focus on a spot where divers plugged in phones and other electronics. But a Los Angeles Times story, citing a confidential report by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, said the blaze began in a plastic trash can on the main deck though an official cause remains undetermined.
Victims' families have sued the Coast Guard in one of several ongoing civil suits. Three days after the inferno, Truth Aquatics Inc., which belongs to the Conception’s owners, Glen and Dana Fritzler, filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles under a pre-Civil War provision of maritime law that allows it to limit its liability to the remains of the boat, which was a total loss.
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