WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. �� The family of one of two teenagers who disappeared at sea in 2015 filed a wrongful-death lawsuit Friday against the other boy's family.
The lawsuit filed by Perry Cohen's family alleges negligence against the family of Austin Stephanos, said Guy Rubin, the attorney representing Perry's mother, Pamela Cohen.
According to Rubin, the allegations in the lawsuit include:
_The boat the two teens were using wasn't properly equipped to go into the ocean.
_Austin's parents knew the boys, both 14 at the time, were heading to the ocean.
_A lawsuit was Pamela Cohen's only legal option after prosecutors declined to press criminal charges.
Rubin discussed the civil case at a news conference, but would not answer questions.
"This wasn't a case of bad luck or simply bad weather," said Rubin, reading from a statement. "Responsible parents would have never allowed 14-year-olds to go into the ocean on a small boat with no VHF radio, no tracking devices, no compass and no voyage plan."
An attorney for Austin's family, Michael Pike, said he considered Friday's comments "insensitive."
"It's a horrible tragedy and to hear the plaintiffs speak the way they did. It was an insensitive approach," Pike said.
He said Austin's parents, Blu Stephanos and Carly Black, were separated for several years before the boys disappeared, and that Blu Stephanos didn't know that they were going out fishing.
Carly Black's lawyer, George Harris, said in a statement that there would be "an appropriate occasion" for Black to address the case, but this wasn't the time to discuss it.
The boys went missing July 24, 2015, after leaving the Jupiter Inlet on an 18-foot Seacraft.
The boys' families were once close but their relationship soured when Austin and Perry disappeared. A search resulted in the boat being recovered, but the boys never were found.
Rubin said other factors in the lawsuit included Austin's parents' knowledge that Perry wasn't allowed to go fishing offshore without his mother's permission.
Last month, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement released a report indicating that on Dec. 1 the agency opened a criminal investigation concerning allegations of child neglect against Austin's mother. A key finding in Special Agent William V. Saladrigas' report is that Black permitted the boys to "go offshore into the Atlantic Ocean, an inherently dangerous environment, in a minimally equipped ... boat ... without adult or parental supervision."
While the boat was "fundamentally sound," it had no electronic or communications equipment that "would have made a successful rescue infinitely more probable," the agent wrote. He suggested that Black should have known better because she and her husband own a marine-supply business.
But prosecutors declined to pursue any charge. Palm Beach County Assistant State Attorney Greg Kridos took issue with the recommendation for charges, insisting that "boating on the open seas is not an 'inherently dangerous activity.'"
It would have to fit that definition to warrant criminal charges, despite the possibility of poor judgment by Black, a report said.
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(Staff writer Marc Freeman contributed to this report.)
