Cruise Ship Lawyers Blog
A cruise line passenger was sentenced to just over two years in prison with 50 months of mandated anger management and substance abuse treatment after a 2023 fight on a ship involving a fellow passenger.
Michael Truman, 39, was recently convicted of assault with a dangerous weapon and assault resulting in serious bodily injury, according to news outlets.
His charges stem from an October 2023 incident aboard a Carnival Cruise Line ship during a performance in the ship’s theater. Another passenger allegedly asked Truman to quiet down during the performance twice before deciding to get crew members involved.
As the passenger tried to walk past, “Truman picked up his drinking glass and smashed it” into his face before striking him repeatedly.
The other passenger needed about 19 stitches, according to reporting from USA Today.
Leesfield & Partners
As a common carrier, cruise ships have an irrefutable duty to care for crew and passenger safety, including protecting them from crimes on board. There are several pieces of legislation including the Cruise Vessel Security and Safety Act and the Jones Act that outline this duty of care, requiring officials to take reasonable precautions to prevent harm and ensure safety. Though this duty of care seems clear, Leesfield & Partners has seen countless times how cruise lines will try to escape liability when such a crime occurs.
In a previous case handled by the firm, a multi-million-dollar result was obtained for a woman who was viciously raped by a crewmember. The man in that case had used an employee keycard to enter the woman’s room.
A Leesfield & Partners client was violently attacked by a group on board a ship.
More recently, Bernardo Pimentel II, a Leesfield & Partners Trial Lawyer, filed a lawsuit against a cruise line whose employee took advantage of his position to plant hidden cameras in order to film various passengers in their private bathrooms. In the footage were passengers ranging in age from adults to 2-year-olds.
The crewmember in that case was sentenced to 30 years in federal prison, however, that and “terminating the employee is not enough,” Mr. Pimentel told reporters from local news outlets.
“That does not stop this from occurring in the future.
In talks with reporters, our client, who has not been named to protect her identity, said the incident left her with a “crushing, devastating, terrifying feeling.”
“We were do deceived,” she said.
That case is ongoing.
Previous Negligent Security Cases
As with cruise litigating, Leesfield & Partners has a long history representing the victims injured by the negligence of companies and property managers in negligent security cases. These defendants are not responsible for protecting patrons and invitees to the property from the criminal acts of a third party unless those acts are foreseeable.
For example, if a property has a history of violence and does not take the proper precautions – including hiring adequately-trained security, installing security cameras or requiring keycards for entry – then a plaintiff’s attorney can argue that they failed in their duty to protect these guests. Another example would be if a hotel management company neglected to secure a specific area of their property, allowing a criminal to gain access and harm a guest, as was the case involving a previous Leesfield & Partners client.
In that instance, a man was allowed to enter an unlocked parking garage of a Key West resort hotel where he attacked our client with a hammer. Our client sustained serious and permanent injuries to the head and face.
The hotel entered a confidential settlement with our client before a $40,580,000 verdict was handed down against the remaining defendant.
Leesfield & Partners previously secured a $16 million settlement for a husband and wife who were attacked at their hotel by a man who was allowed to enter the property and travel up the elevator to the couple’s room despite not being a guest at the hotel. The husband was beaten, and the woman was beaten and raped by the man. No one stopped him from entering the property or from going into the elevator. Additionally, the attack was witnessed by employees and security guards who did nothing to intervene.
A store employee was raped and robbed at a shopping mall in an inadequate security case. The employee was awarded $1.13 million in that case.
Leesfield & Partners secured a $1 million settlement for a hotel housekeeper who was horrifically raped in Monroe County, Florida.
Cruise Ship Crime Data
There has been a slight decrease in crime aboard ships from the first quarter of 2024, which ran from January to March, according to the latest available data from the Department of Transportation. In that time, there were eight assaults with serious bodily injury, 16 sexual assaults, 16 rapes, and one missing persons case reported.
In the second quarter, there was one suspicious death, about eight assaults with serious bodily injury, one missing person, nine sexual assaults and 16 rape cases.
In 2023, 131 sex crimes were reported to the FBI. This included 52 sexual assaults and 79 rapes on ships coming in and out of the United States. In 2022, a year that did not recognize the difference between the two crimes, approximately 87 alleged sex crimes were reported.
If you or someone you know was injured on a cruise ship or due to negligent security, don’t wait. Call a Leesfield & Partners attorney today at 305-854-4900 to see if you may be eligible for compensation.
