tiny blonde

This may be evil of me, but I do watch a lot of "Dateline." I remember a story about a family who killed their son and made it look like a disappearance. For some reason, that story has been haunting me since this whole tragedy began. The child had issues that were going to require special services for life. Could he have thought he'd be doing the family a favor if he staged an "accident?" 
But it couldn't have been pre-meditated, because he couldn't know what he'd find on the ship. (Had they cruised before?) And if he wanted to make it look like an accident, he would have waited until they were at sea. No, if it were pre-meditated, he would have done a better job of it. He was just unfit to be watching a child.

My reason for hoping the grandfather will take the plea deal is because it will require him to plead guilty, therefore making it difficult to impossible for the family to sue RCCL. I want him to admit his guilt, rather than try to defend himself and possibly get acquitted, which would bolster the family's case. 

My reason for hoping the grandfather will take the plea deal is because it will require him to plead guilty, therefore making it difficult to impossible for the family to sue RCCL. I want him to admit his guilt, rather than try to defend himself and possibly get acquitted, which would bolster the family's case. 

Ah, but here's the grandfather's opportunity to "make it up" to his step-children and his wife by refusing the plea deal so they can go ahead with the suit against Royal and maybe at least get rich because of his negligence. 
Personally, I hope he takes the plea deal.

"Chloe was playing with her grandfather in a dining hall that had large windows, and one pane was open.
Last month, Anello told "CBS This Morning" he picked Chloe up and put her on a railing to look out a bank of windows before the girl fell to her death.
He held her in a hug, he said, as she was on the railing. But he then let one arm go as he and his granddaughter both reached out to knock on the glass, as they had done at hockey games."
The above quote is from the article in the South Bend Tribune. At least we're getting closer to the truth!

In the first report I read, on the same day it happened, it was reported that Grandpa said he had lost his grip.
Knowing what I know about ambulance-chasing lawyers, I'm pretty confident that the lawyer read the report and saw an opportunity to take on Royal Caribbean, on a contingency basis, and pursued the family and convinced them to give him the case. They were so stunned and distraught, they probably didn't know what they were agreeing to. The lawyer is hoping RC will settle out of court to avoid bad publicity, and he will walk away with a hefty percentage of the amount of the settlement.
Sorry to be so jaded, but that's what living long, and having some wranglings with the criminal justice system, have done for me. 

This is excellent!! It would be great if someone could post it to Facebook or Twitter where it might go viral.

Even if there HAD been glass, i.e., the window was closed, she still would have fallen, because he let go of her with one of his arms and wasn't holding her securely enough with his other arm to keep her from falling. She would have fallen on the floor and maybe hurt herself, certainly would have cried, so he wasn't being responsible, period. He wasn't holding her safely.
I hope that the prosecution will find surveillance video that shows the grandfather had been drinking prior to the tragedy, and that the video will be admissible, which will explain how he could have exercised such poor judgement and the child should not have been left in his care. Maybe we need a new concept, the Designated Child Watcher.

Even if there HAD been glass, i.e., the window was closed, she still would have fallen, because he let go of her with one of his arms and wasn't holding her securely enough with his other arm to keep her from falling. She would have fallen on the floor and maybe hurt herself, certainly would have cried, so he wasn't being responsible, period. He wasn't holding her safely.
I hope that the prosecution will find surveillance video that shows the grandfather had been drinking prior to the tragedy, and that the video will be admissible, which will explain how he could have exercised such poor judgement and the child should not have been left in his care. Maybe we need a new concept, the Designated Child Watcher.

No, I think there's still something YOU don't get . . . . it's not the family pushing this for profit, it's the LAWYER!!! HE is the one who stands to make a lot of money from this, for no good reason except that RCCL may want to protect their good name. I do NOT believe that the family should be awarded any damages, I just think that they should not be blamed for this circus going on. Blame the person who in all likelihood was the one who initiated it, namely the lawyer. That's all I'm saying.
I was approached by a lawyer, too, and I was advised to engage him and was prepared to initiate a lawsuit following my daughter's death, but the law firm reconsidered and advised me that they changed their minds and would not go forward, because the defendant (who in that case WAS clearly at fault) didn't have any money for us to go after. I was so brain-numbed that I would have gone along with anything they said. I'm glad it worked out the way it did, because money wouldn't have brought her back, but I couldn't think straight then.
Now do you understand? I am NOT in favor of RCCL being sued. I AM in favor of the lawyer being strung up and tarred and feathered and disbarred. I just hate to see the family being manipulated and criticized, when they need to be left alone to grieve.
I'm through. This is as clear as I can be.
 

Thanks for your support. I guess I may have gotten carried away by my feelings. I am grateful for your understanding, both of you . . . .

No, I think there's still something YOU don't get . . . . it's not the family pushing this for profit, it's the LAWYER!!! HE is the one who stands to make a lot of money from this, for no good reason except that RCCL may want to protect their good name. I do NOT believe that the family should be awarded any damages, I just think that they should not be blamed for this circus going on. Blame the person who in all likelihood was the one who initiated it, namely the lawyer. That's all I'm saying.
I was approached by a lawyer, too, and I was advised to engage him and was prepared to initiate a lawsuit following my daughter's death, but the law firm reconsidered and advised me that they changed their minds and would not go forward, because the defendant (who in that case WAS clearly at fault) didn't have any money for us to go after. I was so brain-numbed that I would have gone along with anything they said. I'm glad it worked out the way it did, because money wouldn't have brought her back, but I couldn't think straight then.
Now do you understand? I am NOT in favor of RCCL being sued. I AM in favor of the lawyer being strung up and tarred and feathered and disbarred. I just hate to see the family being manipulated and criticized, when they need to be left alone to grieve.
I'm through. This is as clear as I can be.
 

Thank you. I guess I can talk until I'm blue in the face, but no one who has not suffered such a tragic loss can understand it: losing your child, especially violently, especially needlessly, makes you crazy for a long time. The family is out of their minds and cannot be held responsible for behaving like sheep, accepting the invitation of the TV show and parroting the words of the lawyer. The lawyer is the one who should know better than to take advantage of them this way. He is behaving disgracefully. Years from now the family may well be embarrassed by their TV appearances, if they can bring themselves to watch the tapes. They are still out of their minds with grief and deserve to be left alone.

This is the strongest argument I've read! Too bad it doesn't qualify as evidence, although I hope the prosecution gets to mention it anyway.

I just saw a very moving video of the first news interview with the grandfather, https://www.cnn.com/videos/us/2019/11/26/grandfather-toddler-puerto-rico-cruise-ship-death-interview-mh-orig.cnn   CBS seems to be taking a different view from NBC. Added to this is the fact I read somewhere that the grandfather refused a breathalyzer test. . . . although if he uses an inhaler for respiratory illness, he may have justifiably feared a false positive test.
I don't blame Royal, and I sure don't envy that poor family. 

Breaking news: "After two years of legal wrangling, Harvey Weinstein and the board of his bankrupt film studio have reached a tentative $25 million settlement agreement with dozens of his alleged sexual misconduct victims, a deal that would not require the Hollywood producer to admit wrongdoing or pay anything to his accusers himself, according to lawyers involved in the negotiations."
Guess who's laughing all the way to the bank? The victims? No. Harvey Weinstein? No. The lawyers? Bingo! You can be sure there's celebrating going on at their offices.
   

I agree with you. I hope they don't. RCCL does not deserve to have to pay.

"Several months" is nothing when your child has been killed. Try living with it for years. Decades. Various media kept interviewing me for years afterward, and I never turned them down, nor did anyone try to talk me out of being interviewed. In fact, I told an interested group of people about it just yesterday. If people want to know, if they ask me, I tell them, because my pain needs to be understood.
But I tell them only if they ask, I don't go around telling people "my daughter was killed" anymore, although for the first year, while I was trying to come to grips with it, I did volunteer the information, to explain why I was so emotionally absent. I was walking around in a daze, confused, traumatized, and I felt I needed to offer an explanation for my helplessness, so I told people.
I can't blame the parents of the dead child. They are the victims . . .. of the grandfather's negligence, and the lawyer's greed . . . . and they are still reeling, and will be for a long time. The lawyer is the only person who is milking this for all it's worth, because he stands to make a third of at least a million dollars and probably more. My guess is that RCCL will settle for some number easily divisible by 3 (like $3,000,000) and the lawyer will deduct his expenses from the parents' share and then gleefully pocket a million for himself, and then go looking for someone else to shove in front of the nation.

Thanks for your support. I guess I may have gotten carried away by my feelings. I am grateful for your understanding, both of you . . . .

Thanks for your support. I guess I may have gotten carried away by my feelings. I am grateful for your understanding, both of you . . . .

Thanks for your support. I guess I may have gotten carried away by my feelings. I am grateful for your understanding, both of you . . . .

Thanks for your support. I guess I may have gotten carried away by my feelings. I am grateful for your understanding, both of you . . . .

Thanks for your support. I guess I may have gotten carried away by my feelings. I am grateful for your understanding, both of you . . . .

Thanks for your support. I guess I may have gotten carried away by my feelings. I am grateful for your understanding, both of you . . . .

Thanks for your support. I guess I may have gotten carried away by my feelings. I am grateful for your understanding, both of you . . . .