Judge tosses manslaughter charge in boat fire that killed 34

LOS ANGELES — A Los Angeles federal judge threw out an indictment Friday charging a dive boat captain with manslaughter in the deaths of 34 people in a 2019 fire aboard a vessel anchored off the Southern California coast.

The ruling came on the third anniversary of one of the deadliest maritime disasters in recent U.S. history when the Conception went down in flames Sept. 2, 2019, near an island off the coast of Santa Barbara. All 33 passengers and a crew member who were trapped in a bunk room below deck died.

Captain Jerry Boylan, 68, failed to follow safety rules, federal prosecutors said. He was accused of “misconduct, negligence and inattention” by failing to train his crew, conduct fire drills and have a roving night watchman on the boat when the fire ignited.

But the indictment failed to specify that Boylan acted with gross negligence, which U.S. District Judge George Wu said was a required element to prove the crime of seaman’s manslaughter and must be listed in the indictment.

Family members of seven of the victims said in a statement that they were stunned by the decision. They criticized Wu’s interpretation of the law.

“This is an outrageous miscarriage of justice and quite a slap in the face to receive on the third anniversary of this disaster,” they wrote. “The captain accepted the responsibility of ‘duty of care’ when he received his merchant mariner’s credential. He violated that duty and then was the first to abandon the vessel.”

Prosecutors will seek approval from the Department of Justice to appeal the ruling, said Thom Mrozek, a spokesperson for the U.S. attorney in Los Angeles. They can also seek a new indictment alleging gross negligence.

Boylan’s lawyers in the federal public defender’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The judge scrubbed an Oct. 4 trial date.

Boylan and four other crew members, who had been sleeping on an upper deck and escaped from the burning boat, said the blaze prevented them from trying to reach those trapped below deck. Flames blocked a stairwell and a small hatch that were the only exits from below deck, officials said. All 34 perished from smoke inhalation.

The ruling is the second recent blow to prosecutors in the case.

Boylan originally was indicted on 34 counts of seaman’s manslaughter with each carrying a possible prison term of 10 years if he was convicted. Defense lawyers sought to dismiss those charges because they argued the deaths were the result of a…