A civil jury found in favor of the city of San Diego Thursday in a trial stemming from the drowning of a teen who had just graduated from high school.
Woodlain Zachee Prudhomme, 18, was swept out to sea at Mission Beach on June 14, 2022.
Attorneys representing the Prudhomme family, in their wrongful death suit, alleged that a city lifeguard told the teen and his girlfriend to move out of an area where they were safely in waist-deep water and toward another with a dangerous rip current.
Prudhomme, who was at the beach with friends one day after graduating from Crawford High School in El Cerrito, suddenly found himself sinking beneath the water after he walked into both the current and an inshore hole, the attorneys argued. He was able to push his girlfriend to safety before, pulled under the water, he disappeared.
His body was discovered more than six months later north of Mission Beach.
Attorneys for the city argued that what occurred was “a tragic accident,” but said Prudhomme’s limited swimming capabilities were a major contributing factor in his death. They also argued that the alleged interaction between Prudhomme and lifeguard Mason DeRieux never occurred.
The Prudhomme family’s attorneys had asked jurors in San Diego Superior Court to award his parents more than $17 million in damages. After about a day of deliberations, the jury ruled that the city, through its employee, DeRieux, was not negligent.
Domenic Martini, one of the attorneys representing Prudhomme’s family, said after the verdict that the attorneys would discuss next steps with their clients, including the possibility of an appeal.
In closing arguments earlier this week, Jacqueline McQuarrie, a deputy city attorney, argued that Prudhomme’s girlfriend was the only person to claim that she and the victim were directed by DeRieux to move toward lifeguard Tower 16. That’s where Prudhomme was ultimately pulled beneath the water.
McQuarrie said the young woman didn’t tell anyone about the apparent lifeguard interaction until weeks after the drowning and the attorney said her claim was inconsistent with city lifeguard training and other eyewitness accounts.
For DeRieux to direct the teens to move to a dangerous portion of the water “flies in the face of common sense,” the attorney argued.
Martini argued Prudhomme’s girlfriend was a credible witness and said the teens would not have moved toward Tower 16 unless instructed to do so. He also said that warning signs and flags posted by the city were insufficient and didn’t specifically denote where the rip currents were situated.
Prudhomme’s family recently had moved to San Diego from Venezuela. He was survived by his parents and his twin brother, Woodley, who also attended Crawford High.
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