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Key Bridge victims’ families to take legal action to hold shipowner liable
Baltimore — The families of three of the six immigrant construction workers who died when the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapsed will be asking a federal court to prevent the owner of the ship that crashed into the structure from escaping legal liability.
The families are slated to announce on Tuesday that they will take legal action to hold Grace Ocean Private Limited legally liable for the deadly collapse. The Singapore-based company owns the Dali, the massive container ship that rammed into the Francis Scott Key Bridge in late March after it lost power, causing a large section of the bridge to collapse.
Eight workers doing maintenance on the bridge that night fell into the water — and six of them died. It took 11 weeks for the Port of Baltimore to fully reopen after the bridge collapse, causing millions of dollars in economic losses.
If approved by the federal district court in Maryland, the move set to be announced Tuesday could allow the victims’ families to request and obtain monetary compensation for the deaths of their loved ones, said Matthew Wessler of Gupta Wessler LLP, the firm planning to file the court motion.
“They all have suffered an unimaginable tragedy, losing their loved ones, whether it was one of our clients who lost her husband and partner. Another who lost their son,” Wessler told CBS News. “And we think that accountability, or they think that justice here means holding those responsible accountable.”
Grace Ocean Private Limited was “negligent,” Wessler argued.
“We believe that, at least at this point, what we know so far is that the ship should not have left the port when it did, after having lost power multiple times, within a day or two before it left,” he added.
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Wessler said his firm is planning to file the motion to hold Grace Ocean Private Limited legally liable before Sept. 24, a deadline in a federal court case started earlier this year after the ship company sought to limit its legal exposure stemming from the accident. CBS News reached out to the attorneys representing Grace Ocean Private Limited.
The legal action will be filed on behalf of the families of Miguel Angel Luna Gonzalez, Jose Maynor Lopez Sandoval and Dorlian Ronial Castillo Cabrera, three of the construction workers who died in March.
“My husband is a hero”
In an exclusive television interview inside her home in Glen Burnie, Maryland, Maria del Carmen Castellon called Luna Gonzalez “the best husband” and her “best friend.” The two immigrants from El Salvador met in the U.S. and married in 2017 after spending more than a decade together.
Maria del Carmen Castellon
Castellon said she still vividly remembers the last conversation she had with her husband in the hours before he left for his overnight shift on the Francis Scott Key Bridge on March 26.
“That Monday, my husband calls me and says, ‘Mami, can you make me a tortilla?” Castellon recounted.
“He said goodbye with a kiss,” Castellon added. “And when he said goodbye, all I remember is that he took his phone and he put it in the car and I saw his wallpaper was a photo of us. It was the last time I saw him.”
Gustavo Torres, the executive director of CASA, an advocacy group that has been helping the families of the deceased construction workers, said the victims’ loved ones deserve monetary restitution, labor protections and work permits, as some lack permanent legal immigration status in the U.S.
“They are people who work really, really hard. They’re people who were always thinking in the American dream, making a contribution and building their own businesses,” Torres said.
For Castellon, justice is a difficult concept: “Justice for me would be to have my husband at my side. Share all the dreams we had planned.”
To honor her husband’s memory, Castellon has continued operating a food truck they opened together in Glen Burnie. Every day, she cooks and sells pupusas, tortas, tacos and cheesesteaks to a loyal clientele, many of whom are construction workers like her late husband.
Maria del Carmen Castellon
One day, Castellon hopes to open her own restaurant, a dream she and her husband shared. “I know he’s going to be very proud of me when I open the restaurant,” she said.
Castellon implored people “not to forget” her husband and the other victims of the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse.
“They were there,” she noted, “so this country can have better streets. And those bridges, to have better conditions.”
“The only thing I would love for people to know is that, for me, my husband is a hero, alongside his five co-workers,” Castellon said.
TRENTON, N.J. — Democratic Newark City Council President LaMonica McIver has defeated Republican small businessman Carmen Bucco in a contest in New Jersey’s 10th Congressional District that opened up because of the death of Rep. Donald Payne Jr. in April.
McIver will serve out the remainder of Payne’s term, which ends in January. She and Bucco will face a rematch on the November ballot for the full term.
McIver said in a statement Wednesday that she stands on the “shoulders of giants,” naming Payne as chief among them.
She cast ahead to the November election, saying the right to make reproductive health choices was on the ballot as well as whether the economy should benefit the wealthy or “hard working Americans.”
“I will fight because the purpose of politics and the purpose of our vote is to give the people of our communities and our nation a bold voice,” she said.
Bucco congratulated McIver on the victory in a statement but said he’s looking forward to the rematch in November.
“I am not going anywhere,” he said in an email. “We still have a second chance to make district 10 great again!”
Who are LaMonica McIver and Carmen Bucco?
McIver emerged as the Democratic candidate in a crowded field in the July special election. A member of the city council of New Jersey’s biggest city since 2018, she also worked for Montclair Public Schools as a personnel director and plans to focus on affordability, infrastructure, abortion rights and “protecting our democracy,” she told The Associated Press earlier this summer.
Bucco describes himself on his campaign website as a small-business owner influenced by his upbringing in the foster system. He lists support for law enforcement and ending corruption as top issues.
The 10th District lies in a heavily Democratic and majority-Black region of northern New Jersey. Republicans are outnumbered by more than 6 to 1.
It’s been a volatile year for Democrats in New Jersey, where the party dominates state government and the congressional delegation.
Among the developments were the conviction on federal bribery charges of U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez, who has denied the charges, and the demise of the so-called county party line — a system in which local political leaders give their preferred candidates favorable position on the primary ballot.
Democratic Rep. Andy Kim, who’s running for Menendez’s seat, and other Democrats brought a federal lawsuit challenging the practice as part of his campaign to oust Menendez, who has resigned since his conviction.
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Sean “Diddy” Combs at same Brooklyn detention center that held R. Kelly, Sam Bankman-Fried, other high-profile inmates
A second judge refused to grant bail to Sean “Diddy” Combs on Wednesday and he could remain in federal custody at a Brooklyn detention center until his trial for sex trafficking charges. Combs joins other high-profile inmates, such as singer R. Kelly, fallen cryptocurrency mogul Sam Bankman-Fried, rapper Ja Rule —even Al Sharpton served a brief stint— who were held at the same federal detention center.
Notorious for its horrible conditions —inmates won a $10 million class action settlement after enduring frigid conditions during an 8-day blackout in 2019— the waterfront industrial complex, MDC Brooklyn, houses 1,200 inmates.
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Violence and corruption have long plagued the facility; U.S. District Judge Gary R. Brown of the Eastern District of New York wrote the detention center had “dangerous, barbaric conditions” in a recent sentencing opinion. Two inmates were stabbed to death in recent months and several correction officers have been convicted for smuggling contraband and accepting bribes.
Combs joins a list of high-profile personalities that have landed at the MDC Brooklyn, partly because the city’s other federal detention center, MDC New York, closed in 2021, also due to horrible conditions. The disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein died by suicide in his cell there in 2019. “Numerous and serious” instances of misconduct among corrections staff gave Epstein the opportunity to kill himself, a subsequent federal watchdog investigation found.
Kelly sued the federal detention center in 2022 for wrongly putting him on suicide watch after his sentencing. Kelly sought $100 million because he said the detention center knew he wasn’t suicidal after he was convicted in 2021 for racketeering and violating the Mann Act, which bars transporting people across state lines for prostitution.
Yuki Iwamura/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Former crypto billionaire Bankman-Fried survived on bread, water and sometimes peanut butter when he was in the MDC Brooklyn, his attorney said, because the detention center continued to serve him a “flesh diet” despite requests for vegan dishes.
Ja Rule stayed at the MDC Brooklyn for a brief time before being released after serving most of his two-year sentence for illegal gun possession. Most of his prison time was spent in a state prison in New York.
Sharpton served a 90-day sentence in 2001 and went on a hunger strike for protesting the U.S. Navy bombing of the island of Vieques, in Puerto Rico.
Combs was taken into custody on Monday and according to an indictment unsealed Tuesday he was charged with sex trafficking, racketeering conspiracy and transportation to engage in prostitution.
His attorney Marc Agnifilo told CBS News, “It’s impossible to prepare for a trial from where he is,” after a first federal judge denied Combs bail on Tuesday.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Robyn Tarnofsky agreed with prosecutors who argued the hip-hop mogul, who is accused of using his business empire as a criminal enterprise to conceal his alleged abuse of women, is a flight risk and poses an ongoing threat to the safety of the community.
Agnifilo said the part of the detention center where Combs is being held is “a very difficult place to be.”
contributed to this report.
