Physique of Royal Caribbean cruise passenger Michael Virgil was stuffed in fridge after being served 33 drinks, lawyer says
Royal Caribbean cruise employees allegedly stuffed a passenger’s physique in a fridge and continued the journey after the person died following a marathon consuming session, the household’s lawyer mentioned.
Michael Virgil, a 35-year-old father from California, was served 33 drinks at one of many ship’s bars on the day he died in December 2024, in line with a wrongful loss of life lawsuit filed by his fiancée.
Virgil, who was detained by cruise ship safety throughout a drunken rage and died in custody, had a blood alcohol degree of 0.182 to 0.186 % — or roughly double authorized driving restrict, in line with an post-mortem report obtained by the Every day Mail.
His fiancee, Connie Aguilar, has alleged they injected him with a sedative after the rampage which killed him.
Aguilar, who was touring with Virgil and their 7-year-old autistic son, then pleaded with officers to return to port in Lengthy Seashore after the traumatizing ordeal — however the cruise line refused, her lawyer mentioned.
“They might not do it,” lawyer Kevin Haynes informed the Mail.
“They put Michael in a fridge and continued the cruise for a number of days.”
Virgil grew to become belligerent after crew members allegedly served him practically three dozen drinks on the ship’s limitless alcoholic drinks bundle, the wrongful loss of life swimsuit claims. It’s not clear what number of of these drinks he really consumed.
He then erupted right into a rage when he left the bar extraordinarily intoxicated and couldn’t discover his room, allegedly attacking and threatening to kill crew members and passengers.
Crew members tackled Virgil, stood on his physique with their full weight, administered an injection of the sedative Haloperidol, and sprayed Virgil with a number of cans of pepper spray, in line with the lawsuit.
The post-mortem report from the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner’s Workplace says that he was held down for 3 minutes earlier than he was cuffed and brought to the ship’s medical heart nonetheless respiratory.
Officers famous that Virgil’s blood alcohol degree was “not deadly by itself,” however mentioned alcohol can depress respiration, impair coordination and “diminish the person’s skill to reply to misery throughout restraint.”
Virgil died of “vital hypoxia and impaired air flow, respiratory failure, cardiovascular instability and finally cardiopulmonary arrest, resulting in his loss of life which has been dominated a murder,” the lawsuit alleges.
“The primary domino that fell by way of inflicting his loss of life was mechanical asphyxiation, and that’s the place roughly 5, perhaps extra, Royal Caribbean workers have been making an attempt to restrain him by placing their full physique weight on him,” Haynes informed the Mail. “And so they did that for 3 minutes.”
Haynes in contrast the dad’s loss of life to the loss of life of George Floyd.
“Everybody remembers that very tragic story with George Floyd, and that is related within the sense that they suppressed somebody towards their will, restrained him and precipitated him to cease with the ability to breathe,” he mentioned.
