I have more than a few problems with this whole story:
1. Interesting that the same story (mostly word for word) is released and published simultaneously in news outlets from Las Vegas to London.
2. The US Attorney in Portland is a career and third generation judge/prosecutor and proponent of so called “civil asset forfeiture”. In other words, he approves the concept of guilty until proven innocent.
3. The Seafarer Manslaughter Act was enacted in the 1830s to regulate a spate of steamboat fires and boiler explosions that caused hundreds of deaths. In common law, the government must prove gross negligence or heat of passion in the absence of malice for a manslaughter conviction. The Seafarer Manslaughter Act allows a mariner to be charged with manslaughter on the basis of simple negligence. Look up the matter of Capt. Wolfgang Schroder in 2007.
4. The application of the Seafarer Manslaughter Act is metastasizing like the RICO Act. RICO was going to put the Mob out of business back in the 70s – now it’s applied to everything but the kitchen sink. Old tools for a new day.
The 2010 Seafarer Region Conference participants (including CAMM, IFSMA, Nautilus, ITF, BIMCO, ILO, IMO, and AOS USA) adopted a resolution protesting the government’s increasing trend of using criminal prosecution instead of professional and civil sanctions to penalize simple negligence of mariners. It is curious how this standard applies only to mariners and not any other occupation – say MDs, refinery operators, offshore drillers, miners, airlines ……
5. “Traces” of oxy and MJ in his blood – sure signs he was inebriated. Or, he could have had a wisdom tooth pulled last week and was prescribed Percocet. And maybe indulged in the evil weed two weekends before. It will all show for prolonged periods - the wonders of testing bodily fluids.
No dispute that this is a tragedy. It sounds to me like the boat owner/captain made some bad decisions. If he was, in fact, inebriated – then burn him for criminal manslaughter or worse.
But this sounds more like a typical pipsqueak prosecutor with a political axe to grind. Tough on crime, y’know.