Captain accused of misconduct in deadly Santa Barbara dive boat fire enters plea
The Conception dive boat captain accused of misconduct in the 2019 fire that killed 34 people on board pleaded not guilty in federal court Thursday.
Jerry Nehl Boylan, 68, of Santa Barbara was indicted in October on a charge of misconduct or neglect of a ship officer. The indictment alleged he “acted with a wanton or reckless disregard for human life by engaging in misconduct, gross negligence, and inattention to his duties on such vessel.”
The Conception caught fire in the early morning hours of Sept. 2, 2019, while it was anchored off the coast of Santa Cruz Island.
The blaze grew quickly and trapped 34 people in the bunk room below deck, since the stairs and the small escape hatch both led to a room that was engulfed in flames, according to investigators.
Boylan and four other crew members were asleep in their bunks in the wheelhouse and upper deck at the time of the fire. When they woke up, the fire was too large to extinguish, they told investigators, and they jumped overboard to escape the vessel. They were able to get help from a boat anchored nearby.
All 33 passengers on the dive boat and one crew member in the bunk room died of smoke inhalation, the Santa Barbara County Coroner’s Bureau determined.
Federal officials filed the new indictment to reinstate the criminal charge against Boylan after a federal judge in early September dismissed the previous indictment, for “seaman’s manslaughter,” because it did not allege gross negligence.
The charge contained in the new indictment alleges that Boylan — who “was responsible for the safety and security of the vessel, its crew, and its passengers” — failed his responsibilities in several ways, including by failing to have a night watch or roving patrol; failing to conduct sufficient fire drills and crew training and failing to provide firefighting instructions or directions to crew members after the fire started
According to the indictment, he’s also accused of failing to use firefighting equipment, including a fire ax and fire extinguisher that were next to him in the wheelhouse, to fight the fire or attempt to rescue trapped passengers.
Boylan allegedly failed to “to perform any lifesaving or firefighting activities whatsoever at the time of the fire, even though he was uninjured” and didn’t use the boat’s public address system to warn passengers and crew members about the fire.
The indictment said Boyland was the first crew member to abandon ship “even though 33 passengers and one crew member were still alive and trapped below deck in the vessel’s bunkroom and in need of assistance to escape,” and ordered other crew members to abandon the ship instead of instructing them to fight the fire or engage in other lifesaving activities.
Boylan was arraigned in U.S. District Court on Thursday and entered a plea of not guilty, The Associated Press reported.
The charge of misconduct or neglect of ship officer carries a statutory maximum penalty of 10 years in federal prison.
This story was originally published November 11, 2022 at 10:20 AM.