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US authorities charge pair in scuba diver's death
BY GWEN FILOSA Citizen Staff
gfilosa@keysnews.com
A tourist’s drowning in 2011 on a scuba trip in Key Largo has led to a federal charge of involuntary manslaughter for the charter boat’s owners, according to an indictment unsealed Tuesday by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Miami.
Christopher Jones, 50, and Alison Gracey, 47, both of the United Kingdom, were arrested June 5 in St. Maarten by Dutch authorities, based on a previously sealed indictment first made public Tuesday.
The indictment accuses Jones and Gracey, who owned the commercial dive boat “Get Wet,” of involuntary manslaughter and one count each of making a false official statement.
“The alleged unlawful and careless manner in which the defendants operated the boat caused the death of an individual scuba diver,” said U.S. Attorney Wilfredo Ferrer, of the Southern District of Florida, in a statement.
Jones is additionally charged with one count of violating the federal seaman’s manslaughter statute. The indictment states that his “fraud, neglect, misconduct and violation did destroy the life of Aimee Rhoads.”
Aimee Rhoads, 36, of Federal Way, Washington, drowned Dec. 18, 2011, while trapped in the hull after the boat capsized near Molasses Reef during a scuba diving trip, according to the Coast Guard.
The thee-page indictment notes that the allegations of manslaughter are “without malice,” but squarely blames Rhoads’ death on the boat owners, saying they operated the charter “in an unlawful manner, and without due caution and circumspection.”
Jones and Gracey, who in 2011 lived in the Keys, left the country after the fatality, prosecutors said. A federal grand jury in Miami returned a sealed indictment on Oct. 18, 2012, and the document remained unopened until after their arrests.
The Department of Justice and the Coast Guard are working to extradite the pair from St. Maarten to the United States, Ferrer’s office said Tuesday. Both were in the Bahamas when the drowning occurred, state officials said.
The case was assigned to U.S. Judge James Lawrence King in Key West.
Interpol arrested Jones and Gracey on June 5 in the area of Cole Bay on St. Maarten, according to the SMN news website. The pair were identified only by their initials in the report, which said they had been living and working on the Dutch side of the island since the beginning of 2015.
Also, the indictment accuses the pair of lying about the boat’s ownership in February 2011 to the U.S. Coast Guard National Vessel Documentation Center.
If convicted, Jones faces up to 10 years in prison while Gracey could receive eight years.
Rhoads, who left a husband and 3-year-old daughter, was one of two divers trapped below deck on the dive vessel. She was pronounced dead by paramedics at John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park while another diver, Amit Rampurkar, was critically hurt but survived.
The 24.5-foot vessel had just left a mooring at Molasses Reef and was powering up when the boat began taking on water, capsized and sank, trapping customers in the forward cabin, according to reports by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.
In 2013, Coast Guard Investigative Service Resident in Charge Paul Shultz said an investigation showed the Get Wet had failed a Coast Guard passenger vessel inspection.
Rather than address the safety problems, Shultz said, the boat’s owners dropped the larger license that allowed them to carry more than six passengers and opted for what is known as a six-pack license.
The fatal boat trip was Rhoads’ first time scuba diving, according to her husband, who has posted an online blog about his family’s experience since days after her death.
“No matter how much time they do, it won’t be enough to make up for Aimee’s loss,” Pat Rhoads wrote in a blog posted June 12. “While I do hope for justice, that is part of their life’s path, not mine. Whether or not they go to jail impacts them, not me.”
gfilosa@keysnews.com
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