Insets: Catherine Viteri (Leesfield and Partners). Background: The Coconut Grove Sailing Club in Miami, Fla., where Catherine Viteri was going to summer camp when her alleged boating injury occurred (Google Maps).
An 11-year-old girl attending a Florida summer camp was “permanently mutilated” by a counselor who ran her over with a boat propeller while she was swimming, leaving her leg “lacerated to the bone,” a lawsuit says.
Catherine Viteri, daughter of Michelle and Bolivar Viteri, had her “fun and thrilling” summer camp experience “cut short in the most unimaginable way” when a counselor at the Coconut Grove Sailing Club in Miami, which was running the camp, allegedly “ran her over with a motorboat,” the family”s lawyer Justin Shapiro tells Law&Crime.
“The propeller of the boat ripped her leg open down to the bone, and her leg was nearly amputated,” Shapiro says. “All the muscles and nerves were severed down to the bone, she now has disfiguring scar tissue in a highly visible part of her leg, and she’ll have functional problems in that leg for the rest of her life.”
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The counselor being accused, Myles Carter Holt, 21, allegedly lost track of the number and location of his campers — including Catherine — and “literally ran over” the 11-year-old with the boat’s propeller, Shapiro said. Her parents are suing Holt and the sailing club, while seeking damages of $10 million.
Holt was allegedly behind the wheel of a 2008 13-foot Ribcraft motorboat when he collided with Catherine on July 10, the complaint alleges. Catherine was taking part in a “swimming activity” when Holt began “ferrying a group of children toward the location of the swimming activity,” per the complaint.
“Due to his lack of attentiveness, defendant Holt was unaware of how many children were on the subject vessel that he was operating,” the complaint alleges. “Defendant Holt was also unaware of how many children were in the water for the swimming activity as he operated the subject vessel directly into that location. … Predictably, having no awareness of the number or location of the children in the swimming activity, defendant Holt operated the subject vessel directly into Catherine and literally ran her over with the propeller. The result was gruesome and life-changing.”
In addition to Holt, Catherine’s parents are also suing two other counselors, Aden Weinberg and Sara Ortiz Vey, who were supposed to be supervising the children during the swimming activity, according to the complaint. They are both accused of “failing to provide adequate and reasonable supervision.”
The Coconut Grove Sailing Club did not respond to requests for comment by Law&Crime on Tuesday.
“This was not a situation where some random boater out in the ocean didn’t know there were children swimming there; this was the camp counselor,” Shapiro said in his statement provided to Law&Crime.
“This is the guy who’s supposed to be protecting and supervising these children, and he ran Cate over with the propeller of the boat,” Shapiro says. “Cate’s parents knew there were risks when you go out in the ocean, but they never would have imagined that the risk was the camp counselor.”
Shapiro adds, “Of all the dangers out in the ocean, and there are many, the camp counselor is supposed to protect the kids from the danger. The counselor is not supposed to be the danger.”
