Grandpa from Cruise ship tragedy charged

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This was just a sad situation - - for ALL involved. ;(

I imagine the Grandfather feels like this is all his fault & will carry all of this w/him forever.
I think the Grandfather simply made a mistake.
I bet he wishes more than anything that he could bring this baby back.

I feel it is wrong to charge him in the child’s death.

It was his fault. I don't know how someone doesn't know it is an open window. I just cannot figure that out. I do think there may be some witness statements or video from the cruise ship that may show he knowingly held her up to an open window, vs what he claims. Or that he was on some type of prescribed medication that may have hindered his ability to think clearly. I also think the whole lawsuit thing was outrageous, and had the family quietly gone back home and grieved the loss of their child, charges would not have been brought. But instead they loudly proclaimed it wasn't their fault, it was the cruise ship's and how they were going to sue. So it got looked at more closely and things came about that caused these charges to be filed. Whether they were money hungry or whether they were grasping at anything to displace blame, they stupidly followed an ambulance chasers advice and made the situation worse.

[Anonymous]

When you first board cruise ships you are often handed a welcome drink of champagne. I wonder if he drank his and then had someone else's.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:When you first board cruise ships you are often handed a welcome drink of champagne. I wonder if he drank his and then had someone else's.

Royal Caribbean does not hand out champagne upon embarkation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:When you first board cruise ships you are often handed a welcome drink of champagne. I wonder if he drank his and then had someone else's.

Even assuming this is true universally, which it isn’t:

A. Four sips of champagne should not convince someone putting a baby in an open window 11 stories up is a good idea
B. It wouldn’t negate the negligent homicide charge. Being tipsy and stupid is still being negligent.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:He should be treated the same as parents who leave their children in car seats to die or who otherwise cause their children's deaths. I'm not going to argue one way or the other, but we have to be consistent with handling caretakers who cause children's deaths. Either we exonerate all of them or hold all of them accountable.

In this case, however, there is one additional fact, that the family is filing a lawsuit against the cruise company. Their insistence of the innocence of the person responsible, e.g. the grandfather who was careless, blaming the cruise ship for his negligence in checking whether there was any form of protection before putting his grandchild up there is telling. He not only shows no remorse, and the family's insistence that the cruise line is to blame, show that he does not accept his responsibility in causing the death of his grandchild and seeks to blame someone else. And the fact that they are not only accepting his responsibility but trying to profit from this is sickening.

No, brain science explains why children are accidentally left in cars. Unless Grandpa boarded a cruis ship with the baby every week day and sat her in a closed window sill, there’s no comparison here.

[Anonymous]

Let's assume he didn't understand that a window could be open. In what universe do you lift a child up to a window to bang on the glass? Yes, I know they do this at hockey games. That isn't glass. How do you know that? Because players run into it and it almost never breaks. Would I ever consider allowing a child to pound on a patio door or a window outside of a hockey arena? Of course not. I have no idea what RC is using for windows. Before you tell me that he assumed the windows are hurricane rated, so are the windows in my house. And yet, I still don't bang on them. Because wind is completely different than impact.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This was just a sad situation - - for ALL involved. ;(

I imagine the Grandfather feels like this is all his fault & will carry all of this w/him forever.
I think the Grandfather simply made a mistake.
I bet he wishes more than anything that he could bring this baby back.

I feel it is wrong to charge him in the child’s death.

Sadly, I fear the grandfather won't let himself live long enough to go to trial.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Let's assume he didn't understand that a window could be open. In what universe do you lift a child up to a window to bang on the glass? Yes, I know they do this at hockey games. That isn't glass. How do you know that? Because players run into it and it almost never breaks. Would I ever consider allowing a child to pound on a patio door or a window outside of a hockey arena? Of course not. I have no idea what RC is using for windows. Before you tell me that he assumed the windows are hurricane rated, so are the windows in my house. And yet, I still don't bang on them. Because wind is completely different than impact.

Not to mention, a toddler "banging on glass" would be obnoxious and annoying to the other passengers. But this family strikes me as the type that think "it's all about them."

[Anonymous]

Makes sense. He was negligent.

[Anonymous]

I think there would be a lot more sympathy for the grandfather's fatal error if he and the family didn't put out false information and blatantly lie, in their re-telling of the story. If he simply came out as "I just wasn't thinking and lost my grip" as a tragic accident, I'd think less harshly.

But the family seems so deep in the denial of his responsibility and blame that it's hard to not think grandpa should be charged.

[Anonymous]

And it wasn't a mistake. It was willful negligence

Up to the judge to decide. Willful means deliberate. Did he deliberately place her on ledge knowing the window was open or did he not realize the window was open? I believe he claimed the latter. Either way, open or closed, he overestimated her safety as an older grandpa who kept her safe prior to this horrific (insert whatever you'd like to call it).

He did not willfully intend to kill his granddaughter. He is already serving a life sentence, imo. The judge should order therapy or this man will harm himself.

[Anonymous]

Seems like a huge waste of taxpayer money. Hopefully he'll be able to take a plea that offers some sort of probation and no jail time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

And it wasn't a mistake. It was willful negligence

Up to the judge to decide. Willful means deliberate. Did he deliberately place her on ledge knowing the window was open or did he not realize the window was open? I believe he claimed the latter. Either way, open or closed, he overestimated her safety as an older grandpa who kept her safe prior to this horrific (insert whatever you'd like to call it).

He did not willfully intend to kill his granddaughter. He is already serving a life sentence, imo. The judge should order therapy or this man will harm himself.

Maybe he should take responsibility for his own actions and get therapy himself?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

And it wasn't a mistake. It was willful negligence

Up to the judge to decide. Willful means deliberate. Did he deliberately place her on ledge knowing the window was open or did he not realize the window was open? I believe he claimed the latter. Either way, open or closed, he overestimated her safety as an older grandpa who kept her safe prior to this horrific (insert whatever you'd like to call it).

He did not willfully intend to kill his granddaughter. He is already serving a life sentence, imo. The judge should order therapy or this man will harm himself.

I seem to recall that this guy is not that old. Like maybe early 50's and still working AFAIK.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

And it wasn't a mistake. It was willful negligence

Up to the judge to decide. Willful means deliberate. Did he deliberately place her on ledge knowing the window was open or did he not realize the window was open? I believe he claimed the latter. Either way, open or closed, he overestimated her safety as an older grandpa who kept her safe prior to this horrific (insert whatever you'd like to call it).

He did not willfully intend to kill his granddaughter. He is already serving a life sentence, imo. The judge should order therapy or this man will harm himself.

You appear to be using willful as a synnym for intent, which is not the charge. You clearly have no idea what you are talking about.