Cruise Ship Lawyers Blog
A cruise ship worker who was accused of possessing child sex abuse material on his cellphone was found by police at Port Everglades, according to reporting from Channel 10 News.
Koen Leonard Eyck, 35, was charged with transportation and possession of child pornography. Eyck was working on Holland America Line’s Nieuw Statendam and has since been fired, according to reporting from Channel 10. There has been no official confirmation as to what role he fulfilled on board.
When the ship docked in Porty Everglades on Dec. 14, U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents searched Eyck’s electronic devices. On it, they found his participation in a WhatsApp group chat dedicated to sharing the child sex abuse material and a $35 electronic payment allegedly used to pay for additional illegal material. When questioned, Eyck admitted to receiving the links for anywhere between five to 10 years.
Leesfield & Partners: A History of Representing Cruise Passengers & Crew
Leesfield & Partners has operated as a personal injury law firm throughout Florida since 1976, handling record verdicts and settlements in the state for over 48 years. In that time, the firm’s attorneys have developed cutting-edge trial techniques combined with a dogged persistence to achieve the best possible outcome for clients and grieving families injured by a cruise line’s negligence. In nearly five decades, the firm has handled cruise ship cases in various practice areas such as premises liability, medical malpractice, shore excursions, and injuries resulting from criminal activity.
In an ongoing Leesfield & Partners case being handled by Bernardo Pimentel II, a Trial Lawyer at the firm, a crew member was found planting hidden cameras in the private bathrooms of passengers. The man in that case was convicted of the crime and sentenced to 30 years in prison. The passengers in that footage ranged in age from children to adults.
Our client, who was traveling on the cruise ship and was among the victims, was left feeling extremely violated and told reporters she was left with a “crushing, devastating, terrifying feeling.”
“Terminating the employee is not enough,” Mr. Pimentel previously told reporters. “That does not stop this from occurring in the future.”
Another Leesfield & Partners was descended upon by a violent mob and was beaten while traveling on a cruise ship.
The firm previously handled the case of a Canadian woman who was raped by a crewmember who used his keycard access as an employee to enter her room and begin the violent attack. Leesfield & Partners obtained a multi-million-dollar recovery for the woman in that case.
In medical malpractice cases handled by Leesfield & Partners, the firm previously obtained a $3,335,000 result for a crew member whose arm was amputated after he presented to the ship’s medical staff with nausea. The error that resulted in the man losing his arm occurred when medical staff ignored the black box warning label’s clear instruction on the medication they gave him. Instead of delivering the medication deep into the muscle slowly over the course of several minutes, they delivered it directly to his IV. The man was in immediate pain that lasted 17 hours.
By the time he was able to seek medical treatment on shore, his arm had blackened. In the end, doctors determined the limb could not be saved due to the negligence of the cruise line’s medical team.
In the case of a baby who became a triple amputee after doctors mistook her obvious meningitis symptoms for a stomach bug, Leesfield & Partners secured a multi-million-dollar recovery for her and her family.
If you or someone you know has been injured on a cruise ship, don’t wait. Call a Leesfield & Partners attorney today for a free consultation at 305-854-4900.
