MIAMI – The wife of a prominent South Florida real estate broker George Pino will pay $16 million to the family of a girl seriously injured in a September 2022 boating accident on Biscayne Bay as part of a lawsuit settlement, a Miami-Dade judge ruled.
Pino, 53, of southwest Miami-Dade, released the 29 foot boat to celebrate his daughter’s birthday over Labor Day weekend with a group of friends when he crashed into a canal marker near Boca Chita Key, killing a 17-year-old student at the Academy of Lourdes Lucie Fernández and injuring several others.
THE A 35-page trial was filed by the parents of Katerina Puig, a Lourdes Academy student who, according to the lawsuit, was permanently disabled during the Sept. 4 accident.
Fourteen people were on board, including Pino’s wife, Cecilia, according to the family’s lawsuit. Both were named in the lawsuit, but Cecilia Pino will pay the judgment, which carries an annual interest rate of 9.34 percent.
According to Miami HeraldCecilia Pino had wanted to keep the figure confidential for 10 years to “avoid substantial harm,” saying media coverage of the case had harmed the business of George Pino’s company, State Street Realty, where Cecilia Pino also works.
The lawsuit says Pino was speeding when he hit the channel marker at Cutter Bank, ejecting everyone on board.
The lawsuit says the Pinos, who were supposed to supervise the group of teenage girls, bribed and allowed them to consume alcohol.
It also alleges that George Pino “refused to take a blood test and/or a breathalyzer test after the accident…in order to conceal the fact that he had consumed alcohol to the extent that his normal faculties were impaired.” .
Almost a year after the accident, officials charged George Pino with one count each of reckless operation of a vessel causing death and reckless operation of a vessel causing serious injury, both misdemeanors. But authorities said they do not suspect impairment was a factor in the crash.
Officials said at the time that the charges followed an “extensive marine investigation” by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission and were the maximum allowed by law.
“The mode of operation of the vessel, clearly indicated by the boat’s onboard GPS system, and the fact that the driver of the boat was not under the influence of drugs or alcohol while operating the vessel limited the criminal charges “applicable to the circumstances of this incident,” Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office spokesman Ed Griffith said in a news release after the charges were announced last August.
Pino has pleaded not guilty in the criminal case. A status report on the case is scheduled for Tuesday, according to Miami-Dade court records.
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