Woodlain Zachee Prudhomme drowned off Mission Beach in 2022
An 18-year-old was swept out to sea at Mission Beach and drowned after a city lifeguard directed him to move to an area where a rip current was known to be, an attorney representing the young man's family told jurors Thursday.
Meanwhile an attorney for the city of San Diego argued what happened was "a tragic accident" that occurred in part because the victim was a poor swimmer and didn't heed posted warnings regarding ocean conditions.
Woodlain Zachee Prudhomme was pulled out to sea on June 14, 2022, one day after he graduated from Crawford High School — in fact, the teen was at Mission Beach with classmates for a graduation celebration when tragedy struck. His parents have since sued the city for allegedly failing to prevent it. Jurors heard opening statements late Thursday morning in the civil trial stemming from the Prudhomme family's lawsuit and are expected to begin hearing witness testimony on Monday.
Teen drowns off Mission Beach (2022)
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Domenic Martini, one of the attorneys representing Prudhomme's family, told the jury Prudhomme and one of his friends were initially in a safer area of the beach in waist-deep water when a lifeguard on a jet ski directed them to swim closer to lifeguard Tower 16.
Tower 16 had no lifeguard stationed there and was known to have a rip current in the waters nearby, Martini said.
When Prudhomme and his friend entered that area, the water "suddenly and very quickly" got deeper and caused the teens to feel like they were being pulled out to sea, the attorney said. "In his last moments on this Earth," Prudhomme pushed his friend towards shore and she was assisted by a bystander on a boogie board, while Prudhomme went beneath the waves and disappeared, Martini said.
Kelly McGeehan, a deputy city attorney for the city of San Diego, denied that any lifeguard directed the teens to head towards Tower 16. McGeehan said that claim comes from Prudhomme's friend, who is expected to testify during the trial, but the attorney said "there's simply no credible evidence" that the interaction ever occurred.
McGeehan said the area near Tower 16 was reserved for surfers, and that city lifeguards would not have instructed swimmers to move there.
The attorney said the case was "about choices in the face of warnings and common sense risks" and alleged there was signage posted on lifeguard towers regarding the dangers of rip currents and flags denoting where swimmers should stay.
She said Prudhomme "had limited swimming capabilities" that caused him to go underwater in under 40 seconds and thus he had a heightened need to check for warnings of that sort.
McGeehan also argued it would have been redundant to staff a lifeguard at Tower 16 because swimmers weren't supposed to be there and lifeguards were typically staffed at towers in areas of the beach known to draw larger crowds.
In the weeks after the incident, his father said he knew how to swim and would go to the beaches in Venezuela.
The trial, which is expected to last about 10 days, will include testimony from Prudhomme's friends and family, as well as expert witnesses who will testify regarding the ocean's conditions that day and whether the lifeguards' response to the emergency was adequate.
