Ship owner in Baltimore bridge collapse agrees to pay $102 million for cleanup

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Ship owner in Baltimore bridge collapse agrees to pay $102 million for cleanup

2024-10-25 07:25 Last Updated At：07:30

WASHINGTON (AP) — The owner and manager of the cargo ship that caused the deadly Baltimore bridge collapse have agreed to pay more than $102 million in cleanup costs to settle a lawsuit brought by the Justice Department, officials said Thursday.

The settlement does not cover any damages for rebuilding the bridge, officials said in a news release announcing the agreement. That construction project could cost close to $2 billion. The state of Maryland has filed its own claim seeking those damages, among others.

The settlement comes a month after the Justice Department sued the ship’s owner Grace Ocean Private Ltd. and manager Synergy Marine Group, both based in Singapore, seeking to recover funds from the cleanup.

The Justice Department alleged that the electrical and mechanical systems on the ship, the Dali, were improperly maintained, causing it to lose power and veer off course before striking a support column on the Francis Scott Key Bridge in March. The ship was leaving Baltimore for Sri Lanka when its steering failed because of the power loss.

Six men on a road crew, who were filling potholes during an overnight shift, fell to their deaths. Cleanup crews worked around the clock searching for bodies and removing thousands of tons of mangled steel and smashed concrete from the bottom of the Patapsco River. The Dali remained stuck amid the wreckage for almost two months, with collapsed steel trusses draped across the ship’s damaged bow.

“This resolution ensures that the costs of the federal government’s cleanup efforts in the Fort McHenry Channel are borne by Grace Ocean and Synergy and not the American taxpayer,” Principal Deputy Associate Attorney General Benjamin Mizer said in a statement.

The collapse snarled commercial shipping traffic through the Port of Baltimore and put many local longshoremen out of work before the channel was fully opened in June. It interrupted East Coast shipping routes as the port is one of the busiest in the country, especially for cars and farm equipment.

Grace Ocean and Synergy filed a court petition just days after the collapse seeking to limit their legal liability in what could become the most expensive marine casualty case in history.

Court records show attorneys for both parties said in a joint filing Thursday that they had reached a settlement agreement and requested dismissal of the Justice Department’s claim, which sought $103 million in cleanup costs.

The claim is one of many filed in an expansive liability case that will ultimately determine how much the ship’s owner and manager will owe for their role in causing the disaster. The other claims are still unresolved. They’ve been filed on behalf of the victims’ families, companies whose business has suffered as a result of the collapse, municipal entities and more.

FBI agents boarded the ship in April amid a criminal investigation into the circumstances leading up to the collapse.

When it was filed last month, the Justice Department civil claim provided the most detailed account yet of the cascading series of failures that left the Dali’s pilots and crew helpless in the face of looming disaster. The complaint pointed to “excessive vibrations” on the ship that attorneys called a “well-known cause of transformer and electrical failure.” Instead of dealing with the source of the excessive vibrations, crew members “jury-rigged” the ship, the complaint alleged.

It also noted cracked equipment in the engine room and pieces of cargo shaken loose. The ship’s electrical equipment was in such bad condition that an independent agency stopped further electrical testing because of safety concerns, according to the lawsuit.

Prosecutors seek resentencing for Erik and Lyle Menendez in 1989 killings of their parents

2024-10-25 07:21 Last Updated At：07:30

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Prosecutors will recommend Erik and Lyle Menendez be resentenced for the 1989 killings of their parents in the family’s Beverly Hills home, providing the brothers with a chance at freedom after 34 years behind bars.

Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón announced during a Thursday news conference that his office would recommend the brothers receive a new sentence of 50 years to life. Because they were under 26 years old at the time of the crimes, they would be eligible for parole immediately, he said.

“I came to a place where I believe, under the law, resentencing is appropriate," Gascón said. He said some members of his office oppose the decision.

Prosecutors will file the petition on Friday and a hearing before a judge could come within the next month or so.

The Menendez brothers were sentenced in 1996 to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Lyle Menendez, then 21, and Erik Menendez, then 18, admitted they fatally shot their entertainment executive father, Jose Menendez, and their mother, Kitty Menendez. The brothers said they feared their parents were about to kill them to stop people from finding out that Jose Menendez had sexually abused Erik Menendez for years.

The brothers’ extended family has pleaded for their release, saying they deserve to be free after decades behind bars. Several family members have said that in today’s world — which is more aware of the impact of sexual abuse — the brothers would not have been convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life.

Multiple members of their extended family, including their aunt Joan Andersen VanderMolen, sat in the first few rows of Thursday's news conference. VanderMolen was Kitty Menendez’s sister and has publicly supported their release. Family members said they flew across the country on six hours’ notice to be in attendance.

Mark Geragos, an attorney for the brothers, would not say whether he had spoken to Lyle and Erik on Thursday but said he believes they have heard about the district attorney's decision. Geragos said a “reentry plan” has already been drafted if the brothers get released to help them reacclimate to being free.

Anamaria Baralt, a niece of Jose Menendez, said the district attorney's “brave and necessary" decision means “Lyle and Erik can finally begin to heal from the trauma of their past.”

The Menendez brothers were tried twice for their parents’ murders, with the first trial ending in a hung jury.

Prosecutors at the time contended that there was no evidence of molestation, and many details in the story of sexual abuse were not permitted in the second trial. The district attorney’s office also said back then that the brothers were after their parents’ multimillion-dollar estate.

Gascón said he made the final decision only an hour before the news conference and that family members were told just minutes before.

Despite their life sentences, Gascón said the brothers worked on redemption and rehabilitation inside prison.

“I believe that they have paid their debt to society,” he said.

Not all Menendez family members support resentencing. Attorneys for Milton Andersen, the 90-year-old brother of Kitty Menendez, filed a legal brief asking the court to keep the brothers’ original punishment. “They shot their mother, Kitty, reloading to ensure her death,” Andersen’s attorneys said in a statement Thursday. “The evidence remains overwhelmingly clear: the jury’s verdict was just, and the punishment fits the heinous crime.”

Geragos declined to comment on the statement by Andersen's attorneys.

Though Kitty Menendez was not accused of abusing her sons, she appears to have facilitated the abuse, according to her sons' legal filings. One cousin testified during the brothers’ first trial that Lyle told her he was too scared to sleep in his room because his father would come in and touch his genitals. When the cousin told Kitty Menendez, she “angrily dragged Lyle upstairs by his arm,” the petition said.

Another family member testified that when Jose Menendez was in the bedroom with one of the boys, no one was allowed to walk down the hallway outside.

The LA district attorney is in the middle of a tough reelection fight against former federal prosecutor Nathan Hochman who has blamed Gascón’s progressive reform policies for recent high-profile murders and increased retail crime.

Gascón said Thursday that his office has recommended resentencing for some 300 offenders, including people behind bars for murder.

Hochman on Thursday questioned the timing of the Gascón's announcement, coming less than two weeks before the election and calling it a “desperate political move.”

He said he is unable to form his own opinion on the case without access to confidential records and relevant witnesses.

“If I become DA and the case is still pending at that time, I will conduct a review consistent with how I would review any case,” Hochman said.

Geragos said the DA took the case seriously long before there was any talk of him losing reelection.

Laurie Levenson, a professor of criminal law at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles, warned that the judge would not likely be a “rubber stamp” on the resentencing recommendation due to dissent within Gascón’s office.

“That puts the judge actually in a very challenging position,” Levenson said, who noted that she had not heard of any cases until recently where the head of the office disagreed with other lawyers involved in the case. Ultimately, Gascón chose the “safest route” for his decision — leaving it up to the court and parole board, she said.

Geragos has said he's hopeful the brothers could be freed by Thanksgiving. Levenson called that deadline “awfully hopeful."

The Menendez case has gained new traction in recent weeks after Netflix began streaming the true-crime drama “ Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story.”

The evidence under prosecutorial review included a letter written by Erik Menendez that his attorneys say corroborates the allegations that he was sexually abused by his father.

Roy Rossello, a former member of the Latin pop group Menudo, also recently came forward saying he was drugged and raped by Jose Menendez, the boys’ father, when he was a teen in the 1980s.

Menudo was signed under RCA Records, which Jose Menendez headed at the time.

Rossello spoke about his abuse in the 2023 Peacock docuseries “Menendez + Menudo: Boys Betrayed.” His allegations are part of the evidence listed in the petition filed last year by the Menendez brothers’ attorney, seeking a review of their case. Rossello’s assertion that he was raped twice by Jose Menendez is part of the Menendez brothers’ petition.