FWC chair, Miami-Dade State Attorney texted about Pino boat crash, records show
.jpg "Rodney Barreto, chairman of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, (left) and Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle (right).")
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The investigation into 2022 boat crash that killed a high school student
On Sept. 4, 2022, a boat operated by real estate broker George Pino crashed in Biscayne Bay, killing 17-year-old Lucy Fernandez.
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The head of the state agency that investigated the boat crash that killed a teenage girl texted the Miami-Dade State Attorney several times about the case as they were considering what charges to file against the boat operator, even though he said he was minimally involved in the investigation, according to text messages obtained by the Miami Herald.
Rodney Barreto, chair of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, and Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle exchanged at least nine texts — mostly in the months after the September 2022 crash — according to the heavily redacted records.
The Herald obtained the texts when it requested all discovery materials provided to the defense team of George Pino, 54, who has been charged with felony vessel homicide after slamming his 29-foot Robalo into a concrete marker in Biscayne Bay, leading to the death of17-year-old Luciana ‘Lucy’ Fernandez. The State Attorney’s Office told the Herald Wednesday night that the messages had been accidentally provided to the Heraldand were not actually part of discovery but part of another records request.
Texting months after the crash
In the first message, dated March 14, 2023 — six months after the crash — Fernandez Rundle texted Barreto, “May I call you today reference the boat accident?”
“OK,” Barreto responded after he and Fernandez Rundle agreed to speak in 25 minutes. Other parts of the text thread were redacted.
Months later, on June 6, 2023, Barreto shared a text with Rundle that he had received from Lucy’s father, Andres Fernandez. Fernandez was expressing his frustration with the FWC and State Attorney’s Office for not concluding their investigation. By that point — nine months after the crash — Pino hadn’t been charged with any crimes.
“It’s been close to 3 months since FWC and SAO cancelled our meeting and my understanding was that it was not going to be a significant delay,” the Fernandez text said. “I’m sorry to bother you with this but I’m really frustrated and out of patience. My family and I need this for closure and no one really cares. Would love to hear your thoughts.”
Portions of the text thread were redacted. However, hours later, Barreto texted Fernandez Rundle again: “Kathy, please call to discuss this.”
Joel Denaro, the attorney for Andres and Melissa Fernandez, Lucy’s mother, declined to comment on the texts.
“The Fernandez Family is not prepared to make a statement at this time because of the pending criminal litigation and because they need time to process what they are learning,” Denaro told the Herald.
On Aug. 1, 2023, Fernandez Rundle texted Barreto, “GM! Was trying to reach you regarding the boating case.” The other text messages were redacted.
Later that month, the State Attorney’s Office, working with the FWC, charged Pino with three counts of careless boating in the crash, criminal misdemeanors punishable by up to 60 days in jail for each count.
READ MORE: Injured girl’s family ‘outraged’ at minor charges in fatal Florida Keys boat crash probe
On May 13, 2024, Barreto texted Fernandez Rundle again, “He gave consent to remove props and dive the hull,” referencing Pino’s consent to search his boat. Fernandez Rundle responded with a thumbs up. The rest of the exchange was redacted.
The day after the crash, FWC investigators found 61 empty booze bottles and cans on the boat, which they had pulled from the water after it had capsized in the crash. Pino’s attorney, Howard Srebnick, said the empty containers stemmed from five boats tied up that day on Elliott Key, but hasn’t disclosed the boaters’ names.
In a statement Friday morning, the family of Katerina ‘Katy’ Puig, the now 20-year-old who was seriously injured and is still relearning how to walk after the crash, said they are “forced to confront the deeply troubling reality that continues to emerge from the handing of this case.
“Katy’s parents are still processing these painful recent revelations,” the statement said. “Their sorrow continues to be compounded by shock, disbelief, and disgust. While we are relieved and grateful that Mr. Pino was finally charged with the appropriate felony—Vessel Homicide—the path to that charge has been littered with incompetence, misconduct and missteps that can only be described as a mockery of justice.”
The family is calling on legislators to probe the FWC’s investigation of the crash.
Barreto: Involved in policy, not investigations
On Wednesday, Barreto told the Herald that his involvement in the Pino probe was minimal and said his conversations with Fernandez Rundle mostly involved how the FWC and the State Attorney’s Office could work together better on boat cases involving fatalities and serious injuries. At one point, Barreto said he brought FWC‘s leadership from Tallahassee to meet with Fernandez Rundle’s office.
Barreto had previously told the Herald his role at the FWC is policy making, not the law enforcement aspect of the agency. FWC police officers investigate boating accidents.
“I do not get in the way of these investigations,” Barreto told the Herald two weeks ago. “We’re gonna call it like it is. We’ve got no dog in this fight. It doesn’t matter who these people are.”
Last month, a video surfaced of Barreto speaking on a radio show weeks after the crash and acknowledging to the hosts that he knew Pino personally. Barreto told the Herald that he knows Pino, but not well, and has never spoken with him about the case. Barreto is a Coral Gables developer; Pino is a Doral real estate broker.
Barreto said he talks to Fernandez Rundle often because they have known each other for decades, since he was a Miami police officer and Fernandez Rundle was a prosecutor under former State Attorney Janet Reno.
“Basically, I’ve known her my entire adult life,” Barreto said.
Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office spokesperson Ed Griffith acknowledged the two have worked together often and said Barreto has also “often lent the State Attorney his support and voice during the Florida Legislative session.”
“Years of interactions have made State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle and Chairman Rodney Barreto both friends and effective working associates, so I would naturally expect numerous conversations between the two on a wide range of issues and topics,” Griffith said in a statement to the Herald Wednesday.
No sobriety test
On the night of the crash, FWC investigators did not give Pino a sobriety test, even though they are trained to do so in boating accidents with serious injuries. Investigators on the scene knew that four of the 14 people on the boat were airlifted as trauma alert patients by Miami-Dade Fire Rescue, including Lucy Fernandez, who died the next day in the hospital.
In addition, Pino told FWC investigators on the scene that he had “two beers” that day. The Pinos were celebrating their daughter’s 18th birthday and she had invited 11 of her close girlfriends — all underage — to go on the Sept. 4, 2022, outing to Elliott Key in Biscayne Bay.
The FWC has maintained it did not have probable cause to get a warrant to force Pino to take a sobriety test. But the FWC could have contacted the State Attorney’s Office, which has a prosecutor on call 24/7 to help officers get a search warrant, arrest warrants and court orders in these types of cases. In fact, the second page of a State Attorney Office’s slideshow for the FWC on vessel homicides gives the hotline number for the prosecutors.
The FWC didn’t call.
READ MORE: How investigators, prosecutors bungled probe into boat crash that killed teen girl
Missing FWC body camera footage
In recent weeks, the Herald reported that John Dalton, a Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office detective who was on the scene of the crash, said in a deposition that he suggested that FWC officers test Pino for alcohol that night.
“Well, yes. Obviously, you can do a blood draw,” Dalton told one of the FWC officers on the scene, according to the testimony he gave to a Pino attorney and prosecutor. “I mean, [Pino’s] involved in a crash that has potential for a fatality or serious bodily injury. You can force a blood draw on him with a warrant. And you can take one right now, with exigent circumstances. You have fire-rescue here. It’s something you might be able to do right now.”
The Herald also reported that the body camera footage of four FWC officers who were in close proximity to Pino that night — Julien Gazzola, Keith Hernandez, Hanna Hayden and Jesse Whitt — was deleted.
Gazzola told an attorney for Pino that Pino smelled of alcohol, had ‘bloodshot eyes’ and was disoriented. None of the officers, aside from Gazzola, reported seeing signs that Pino was impaired.
The FWC says the officers’ footage was deleted after the officers classified it as “incidental,” not criminal, when they uploaded it into the FWC’s computer system. “Incidental” footage is automatically deleted after 90 days; footage from a criminal investigation has to be retained five years for misdemeanor charges and 13 years for a felony charge, according to the FWC’s policy.
Rep. Vicki Lopez, the Miami-Dade state House member who sponsored “Lucy’s Law,” which calls for tougher penalties for boat operators in crashes with serious injury starting July 1, has called on her colleagues in the Legislature to investigate how the officers’ footage was deleted.
Pino was initially charged with three misdemeanors but those charges were upgraded to a felony vessel homicide charge on Oct. 31. The State Attorney’s Office reopened its investigation after a Miami-Dade firefighter at the scene came forward and said he observed Pino showing signs of intoxication that day.
The firefighter spoke up following a series of Miami Herald articles detailing flaws in the investigation, including FWC officers never following up with eyewitnesses.
Pino has pleaded not guilty and is tentatively scheduled to stand trial in September. If convicted, he faces up to 15 years in prison.
This story was originally published June 6, 2025 at 12:51 PM.
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