Washington city to pay $15 million to parents of teen who drowned in lake during summer camp in 2022

SEATTLE, Wash. (AP) — A Washington city will pay $15 million to a teenager's parents to settle a wrongful death lawsuit they filed after he drowned during a field trip to a camp. been in town.

Darrell “DJ” McCutcheon, Jr., disappeared underwater in Florence Lake on Anderson Island, southwest of Seattle, on July 15, 2022, according to Pierce County court records.

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Brett Rosen, an attorney for the McCutcheon family, told The Seattle Times this week that Steilacoom agreed to pay $15 million to settle their lawsuit in late April.

A camp worker had left DJ, 13, and other teens at the lake that day while he went to pick up another group of children and a co-worker at the nearby ferry terminal, according to court records.

DJ, who had never swum in open water before and was not provided with a life jacket, remained underwater for about six minutes before bystanders rescued him and began performing CPR. He was airlifted to a hospital and died that day, according to court records.

Earnest Roberts, who was walking on the beach at the time, swam over and spotted the 13-year-old about 10 feet underwater and pulled him to the surface.

“If he had been properly and properly supervised as part of the summer camp group … this boy would not have died,” Roberts said, according to court records.

The boy's parents, Tamicia and Darrell McCutcheon Sr., sued the city for negligence.

“The most important thing to them is that this never happens to another child,” Rosen said.

Paul Loveless, Steilacoom's administrator, and Amanda Kuehn, its lawyer, declined to speak to the newspaper, citing pending litigation because final termination papers had not yet been filed.

In a court filing in January, the city sought to dismiss the couple's wrongful death claim, saying Tamicia McCutcheon signed a waiver accepting the risks, including injury or death, of participating in activities in or near water.

The couple's lawyers argued that the “generic release” form did not describe any situation in which the children would be taken into open water.

The McCutcheons' attorneys also said camp employees planned the outing knowing they would have to transport campers from the ferry terminal in two groups, leaving one at the water's edge. The move violates a policy in the city's staff training manual that states campers “must be under the supervision of a staff member at all times during program hours,” according to court records.

The McCutcheons plan to use the settlement money to create a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting water safety at summer camps and to create scholarships in their son's name, Rosen said .

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