Remember last year’s deadly Labor Day fire on the boat named Conception? A federal grand jury finally indicted its captain, Jerry Boylan, age 67, on 34 counts of seaman’s manslaughter. Of the 34 wrongful deaths, 33 were passengers; one was a member of the crew. This disaster that occurred on September 2, 2019, during Labor Day weekend, is regarded as one of the worst maritime disasters in recent U.S. maritime history.
If convicted of this crime, Captain Boylan faces up to ten (10) years in prison for each count of seaman’s manslaughter. However, in such multiple counts, convicted defendants have usually served much less time in prison.
Meanwhile, the boat’s owner, reportedly Glen Fritzler and his company, Truth Aquatics, have been the object of investigations by multiple government agencies that commenced shortly after the boat burned and sank.