Royal Caribbean , is facing more legal difficulties after a former team member admitted to , spying on boat individuals, including children, in their rooms and rains after planting , little cameras , in their houses to document them in state of undress.
A few prospective patients, represented by , Coral Gables, Florida-headquartered Aronfeld Trial Lawyers, have sued , Royal Caribbean , and , Arvin Mirasol, the house room attendant, in the , U. S. District Court Southern District , of , Florida , in , Miami , in a problem filed last year. A spokeswoman for the boat large, likewise based in , Miami, told the , Miami Herald , she had not yet been briefed on the complaint.
The defendants aren’t named in court papers, but they live in , Arkansas,  , Georgia,  , Texas  , and , Missouri , and were on board the Symphony of the Seas maybe between , Dec. 1, 2023, and , Feb. 26, 2024. One person was on the boat with her 2-year-old child.
Symphony of the Seas ‘ house port in the winter is , Port Everglades , in , Fort Lauderdale. From it, it makes about one-week journeys to the , Caribbean.
The new complaint is one of at least four civil suit filed against the boat big since October, all by , South Florida , rules organizations, on behalf of the alleged victims of Mirasol, who pleaded guilty to a child sex charge in June.
Latest of several lawsuits
On , Oct. 15, a class-action civil lawsuit was filed in the same , Miami , federal court against , Royal Caribbean Cruises , and Mirasol. The plaintiff, called , Jane Doe , in the complaint and represented by the , Coral Gables , firm Lipcon, Margulies &, Winkleman, was a passenger aboard Symphony of the Seas on or about , Feb. 25, 2024. She’s a , New Hampshire , resident.
Leesfield &, Partners , filed a suit on , Oct. 18 , on behalf of another , Jane Doe , victim, a resident of , Hawaii. Gerson &, Schwartz filed lawsuits on behalf of three families from , Virginia , on , Oct. 28.
One other , Miami-area firm — Hickey Law Firm, which represents at least two families — also expects to file lawsuits.
Only one case, the Lipcon one, is class action. It’s possible that the various law firms could work together, particularly when the case is being discovered or in the initial stages of litigation. The cases would likely remain separate.
What is Royal Caribbean’s position?
In March, after Mirasol was  , caught and arrested,  , Jonathon Fishman, then a spokesman for , Royal Caribbean, told the Herald that” we immediately reported this to law enforcement and terminated the crew member, and we will continue to fully cooperate with authorities”.
In October, after the first lawsuit was filed,  , Heather Hust Rivera, chief communications officer of , Royal Caribbean Group, said:” As this is pending litigation, we are unable to comment further at this time”.
In that class-action lawsuit,  , Royal Caribbean , has so far requested and been granted time extensions to respond, according to court filings.
Jason Margulies, an attorney and partner with Lipcon, Margulies &, Winkleman, told the Herald in an interview that in his conversations with , Royal Caribbean, the cruise line indicated it will likely try to compel the plaintiffs to go to arbitration.
Origin of new lawsuit
Like the others, the latest lawsuit goes back to a federal and local investigation last year, led by Homeland Security Investigations, a division of the , Department of Homeland Security. Federal agents and , Broward County , officers met Mirasol, a 34-year-old , Philippines , national, as the Symphony of the Seas returned to , Port Everglades , on , March 3. According to court records, he had admitted to ship security to installing small cameras in passengers ‘ cabins after one guest discovered one while using the restroom.  , Royal Caribbean , said it then notified federal authorities and had its security personnel detain him on the ship.
According to court documents and a Broward Sheriff’s Office criminal complaint, law enforcement agents discovered” several videos of naked females undressing in their bathrooms” while searching his electronic equipment, including a USB stick device. One girl seemed to be 10 years old, they said.
In June, Mirasol pleaded guilty, and on , Aug. 28,  , U. S.  , Judge , Melissa Damian , in , Fort Lauderdale , gave him the maximum possible sentence: 30 years in prison on a charge of producing child pornography.
Yet that has not brought closure. One outstanding question: how many victims there were. Ascertaining that hasn’t been easy.
As a stateroom attendant, Mirasol regularly cleaned passenger rooms, restocked towels and changed sheets on the ship, which carries 5, 518 passengers and 2, 200 crew members.
He admitted to using cameras in the bathrooms of his guest rooms” since he started working on Symphony of the Seas around December 2023,” according to his plea agreement. That implies that he might have worked on 12 distinct cruises prior to the one in which he was arrested. Six of those would have been six-night cruises, and six were eight-night trips, according to Royal Caribbean’s published itinerary. All departed and returned to , Port Everglades , in , Fort Lauderdale.
The class-action suit filed in October by Lipcon, Margulies &, Winkleman alleged there could be “up to 960 passengers” who are victims.
Spencer Aronfeld, an attorney and founder of the law firm behind the most recent lawsuit, used the same estimate in his lawsuit but believes there might be more. In an interview with the Herald, Aronfeld claimed that “he could have easily had access to another cabin” besides the ones he was given.
Initially, the feds were notifying victims or possible victims, but once Mirasol pleaded guilty and was sentenced, their incentive to look for all other victims decreased, said Aronfeld, who conceded they have limited bandwidth and resources. They also have somewhat different objectives.
” Their mission is to secure a conviction”, said the attorney. ” Mission accomplished. They’re like,’ Let’s move on.'”
So, it’s really up to the cruise company to notify all possible victims. Aronfeld said because of calls he was getting from concerned cruise passengers, he tried to push , Royal Caribbean , to do that.
But to no avail, so far.
What bothers Aronfeld’s clients most “is that , Royal Caribbean , hasn’t reached out to any of them”, he said. ” We have waited patiently for months”.
A major claim in the most recent lawsuit, like the other ones, is that passengers were undressed and engaging in private activities without knowledge while being recorded by Mirasol. When asked to lower a bed, Mirasol said that some of their beds “were strangely propped up in their cabins.” Additionally, he requested to switch up the room in the middle of the day.
According to the complaint, the defendant made available images of the victims online, including the dark web. As a result, “plaintiffs suffer from severe emotional distress, which manifests physically, causing the Plaintiffs physical sickness, sweating, nausea, insomnia, dizziness, crying, and physical pain”.
They worry that the images may never be discovered and taken down because of the depth of the dark web and the internet. They “live in constant fear” that other people regularly use pictures of the Plaintiffs they have undressed while engaging in private activities.
The cruise line, according to the complaint, also alleged that they failed to adequately vet Mirasol before employing him or to adequately train and supervise him afterward.
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