When George Pino pleaded not guilty Wednesday to new charges in the boating crash case that took the life of high school student Lucy Fernandez, 17, and permanantly disabled another teenage passenger, it wasn’t a surprise. Attorneys for the South Florida real estate broker whose boat slammed into a concrete channel marker in Biscayne Bay in 2022 have called the collision a tragic accident and said that Pino should not be prosecuted.
But nearly three years later, this case isn’t going away. Nor should it. With each new twist — the latest was a manslaughter charge filed last week by prosecutors in the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office, which cited new information — it becomes even more important for the community to understand who is at fault, if anyone.
One girl died and another was severely injured. That alone should be enough to warrant a full and transparent investigation, no matter how long it takes. But this is also a case that includes possible problems with the way investigators and prosecutors proceeded. South Floridians have a right to know whether the justice system is being applied with an even hand and whether investigative procedures are being followed…