Grandpa from Cruise ship tragedy charged

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:He picked her up to see the pretty view and feel the ocean breeze. He knew the window was open.
It’s stupid to try to balance a toddler on a railing (and this railing was chest high). But stupid turns to deadly (and criminal) when you do it at an open window.

+1 he thought he was being "cool grandpa" giving the child the excitement of the breeze and view -- until she used her legs to push out of his grip. Toddlers' legs are the strongest part of their bodies -- they are working on walking -- and when they have something to push off of, they can be very hard to hold on to. And it's also possible that gramps was distracted by the view or by the other people in the area or other family members looking around that deck.

It's not enough to say "he has suffered from the loss of the child." If that were the case, then no one would ever cause a child's death.... and yet, they do. Remorse is not sufficient.

Also the last known picture of her is in a bathing suit in the toddler splash area. She was quite possibly wet and slippery.

[Anonymous]

The cbs reporter who saw the video said he held her there for 25 seconds before she fell! 25 seconds!

The lawyer’s response: “Most importantly, whether it was 5, 10, or 30 seconds does nothing to change the fact that Sam reasonably believed the window was closed."

Uh no it does matter. How do you stand in front of a window for 25 seconds, 11 stories high and say you did know the window was open?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The cbs reporter who saw the video said he held her there for 25 seconds before she fell! 25 seconds!

The lawyer’s response: “Most importantly, whether it was 5, 10, or 30 seconds does nothing to change the fact that Sam reasonably believed the window was closed."

Uh no it does matter. How do you stand in front of a window for 25 seconds, 11 stories high and say you did know the window was open?

This lawyer is an idiot

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:He picked her up to see the pretty view and feel the ocean breeze. He knew the window was open.
It’s stupid to try to balance a toddler on a railing (and this railing was chest high). But stupid turns to deadly (and criminal) when you do it at an open window.

+1 he thought he was being "cool grandpa" giving the child the excitement of the breeze and view -- until she used her legs to push out of his grip. Toddlers' legs are the strongest part of their bodies -- they are working on walking -- and when they have something to push off of, they can be very hard to hold on to. And it's also possible that gramps was distracted by the view or by the other people in the area or other family members looking around that deck.

It's not enough to say "he has suffered from the loss of the child." If that were the case, then no one would ever cause a child's death.... and yet, they do. Remorse is not sufficient.

Also the last known picture of her is in a bathing suit in the toddler splash area. She was quite possibly wet and slippery.

on the CBS interview, he says he watched her fall all the way down. But, a minute later in the interview he says he didn't know where she went when she slipped through his arm and he started to look for her on the floor b/c he thought there was a window. It seems like the two things are not compatible. What really happened is that (1) he actually did watch her fall all the way down, and then in shock and horror, (2) he started to look for her on the floor with the hope that he hadn't seen what he saw.

He seems like a nice man -- and I sympathize with the torture he is going through. People do things they regret for the rest of their lives. That is why people avoid risks -- b/c the consequences are so terrible that we don't want to experience them. He made one huge mistake... that cost the girl her life, and it will ruin his. But, the law still has to be applied. We don't want anyone to take these risks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:He picked her up to see the pretty view and feel the ocean breeze. He knew the window was open.
It’s stupid to try to balance a toddler on a railing (and this railing was chest high). But stupid turns to deadly (and criminal) when you do it at an open window.

+1 he thought he was being "cool grandpa" giving the child the excitement of the breeze and view -- until she used her legs to push out of his grip. Toddlers' legs are the strongest part of their bodies -- they are working on walking -- and when they have something to push off of, they can be very hard to hold on to. And it's also possible that gramps was distracted by the view or by the other people in the area or other family members looking around that deck.

It's not enough to say "he has suffered from the loss of the child." If that were the case, then no one would ever cause a child's death.... and yet, they do. Remorse is not sufficient.

Also the last known picture of her is in a bathing suit in the toddler splash area. She was quite possibly wet and slippery.

Ah ha! Negligence on the part of the cruise line! No one dried her feet! No one could anticipate wet feet would be slippery!

[Anonymous]

He's not innocent. No person in their right mind would put a baby in an open window like that - and for 25 seconds! How on earth can he claim that he didn't know the window was open?

This guy really seems to think that he can get out of these charges AND his family will get money from the cruise line. That really, really can not happen!

[Anonymous]

Even if he’s done nothing illegal (not sure), the lawyer is so much to blame here.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Even if he’s done nothing illegal (not sure), the lawyer is so much to blame here.

Meant to say so much of the post-death antics are the fault of the lawyer egging on the family with bad advice and feeding them stupid things to say to the media. He’s looking for his own fame.

[Anonymous]

So he looks out the window for 8 seconds, reaches down to get he and balances her on the railing for 25 seconds before he falls. He says he wouldn’t have done that if there had been a warning sign.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So he looks out the window for 8 seconds, reaches down to get he and balances her on the railing for 25 seconds before he falls. He says he wouldn’t have done that if there had been a warning sign.

Wait what? Look, I get the family is using the cruise ship negligence angle to try to deal with their grief, but COME ON. This lawyer is preying on a grieving family. He should be disbarred

[Anonymous]

So now we need a sign in front of open windows? These people are morons

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Even if he’s done nothing illegal (not sure), the lawyer is so much to blame here.

Meant to say so much of the post-death antics are the fault of the lawyer egging on the family with bad advice and feeding them stupid things to say to the media. He’s looking for his own fame.

No, the family is to blame. In the very first articles on the day that it happened, the family was interviewed before they had the lawyer. They already said that they were thinking of suing the cruise line. So instead of being sick with grief, they started from the position that they were going to cash in on the negligence and get the cruise line. They probably thought they struck it rich and would get enough that they wouldn't have to work anymore. The horrible litigious "pay me for my stupidity because you didn't warn me not to be a moron" mentality is epidemic in our society. It's sad that they were able to think of this when they should have been sick with grief. The lawyer is not preying on them. They wanted this and then found an ambulance chaser to do it for them. He's only doing what they wanted.

And this is why I think the family or at least the grandfather should be found negligent. Frankly, I think the parents were also negligent leaving the baby with grandpa.

[Anonymous]

These parents are what's wrong with society. I can't imagine they have any friends left, I'd be disgusted by them.

[Anonymous]

I think they are all complicit. I bet some insurance money is involved or they are heavily in debt and planned to sue the cruise line or maybe the girl is the stepfather's biological daughter or who knows what. Their response is just not normal or believable in any way.

That said, the grandfather is the step grandfather. The only way I can imagine this making any kind of sense is if he had not raised kids and had never, ever spent time taking care of any, either. Still, hard to imagine the mom wouldn't have said something or stuck around to supervise a complete novice taking care of a busy toddler. At the very least I would be concerned she would get lost among strangers or drown in the pool. I don't think I'm over protective....

[Anonymous]

Apparently the mother is a prosecutor. I didn't know that.

So it would appear that she's trying to force the cruise line to settle to prevent negative press, etc... I bet the Puerto Rican authorities wouldn't be prosecuting Grandpa Slippy Fingers if the family wasn't suing. This has long legs IMO. A negligent cruise line could impact tourism and the PR economy; which has really been slow to recover.

The whole thing stinks. Poor Chloe.