Closing arguments were delivered Wednesday in the civil trial surrounding the drowning death of an 18-year-old swept out to sea at Mission Beach, with jurors tasked with deciding whether a city lifeguard negligently directed him toward a rip current or whether the deceased himself was at fault for entering the water despite limited swimming skills.
In their lawsuit against the city of San Diego, the parents of Woodlain Zachee Prudhomme claim a city lifeguard told their son to move out of an area where he was safely in waist-deep water and into the vicinity of a rip current on June 14, 2022.
Prudhomme, who was at the beach with friends one day after graduating from Crawford High School, only entered the dangerous part of the water due to the lifeguard’s instruction, according to the family’s attorneys. Along with the rip current, the area he entered contained an inshore hole that made it harder to stay afloat and was known to city lifeguards, family attorneys say.
Prudhomme’s body was discovered more than six months later north of Mission Beach.
Attorneys for the city say Prudhomme knowingly entered the water while having little to no swimming ability and ignored warnings posted around the beach regarding the presence of rip currents.
They also argued that the alleged interaction between Prudhomme and the lifeguard never actually happened.
Domenic Martini, one of the attorneys representing Prudhomme’s family, recommended jurors award damages to Prudhomme’s parents exceeding $17 million for the past and future loss of their son, as well as Prudhomme’s personal pain and suffering in the time just before he drowned.
Jacqueline McQuarrie, a deputy city attorney with the city of San Diego, argued that the jury should not award damages because the city wasn’t at fault, but said if jurors elect to find fault, they should award damages in a range of around $3-5 million.
McQuarrie said Prudhomme’s girlfriend was the only person to claim that she and Prudhomme were directed by Sgt. Mason DeRieux to move towards lifeguard Tower 16, where Prudhomme was ultimately pulled beneath the waters.
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 towards Tower 16 unless instructed to. He also said the warning signs and flags posted by the city were insufficient and didn’t specifically denote where the rip currents are situated.
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