Turtleboy Investigates

You Have To Be A Very Scummy Lawyer Like Joe Orlando Jr To Sue A Good Samaritan Who Tried Saving The Lives Of 3 Gloucester Fishermen

 

This is a wild and sad story out of Gloucester from 2015.

On Thursday, in the rushing darkness of a winter twilight, the three-man crew of the 51-foot Orin C went into the water and only two emerged safely onto the deck of the U.S. Coast Guard’s 47-foot lifesaving boat out of Station Gloucester. David Sutherland, 47, of 10 Montvale Ave. — known to all along the waterfront as Heavy D — died in the water as the Coast Guard tried to rescue him after his slime eel boat sunk about 12 miles off Thacher Island.

The story began to unfold about 9:30 Thursday morning, when Phil Powell of Swampscott, captain of the groundfishing boat Foxy Lady, received word from Sutherland that the Orin C was taking on water and in trouble.  

“I was about 25 miles out and Dave Sutherland called me from his boat,” Powell said. “He was out off Wildcat Knoll and they had broken down and needed assistance. I steamed for two hours, about 16 miles,  to reach him and then we started the tow.

“I wasn’t going to leave him alone out there.”

While under tow, the winds started to blow with a greater fury, howling between 30 and 35 knots, while the seas rose from 8 feet to 10 feet. Powell said the tow went well for the first five hours despite the fact they were using a short line. But then the seas got worse.

“One wave hit him and brought his bow down and the second wave came and went over the top of his roof, opening up the front super structure of the boat,” Powell said. “At that time, about 3, I called the Coast Guard for assistance and they put a boat on route that was two hours away.”

Lepere said the station already was monitoring the situation by radio and, given the escalating wind and high seas, began readying the 47-foot lifeboat. He said that boat got underway at 3:33 p.m. with nine crew aboard. By then, the seas were between 10 and 12 feet. The Foxy Lady continued towing the Orin C in the worsening seas until the Coast Guard boat arrived. Lepere said the life boat reached the other two boats about 4:45 p.m. after cruising 13 miles.

“We discontinued the tow and the Coast Guard took over,” said Powell, a commercial fisherman of 31 years.

The first order of business was transferring a pump aboard the Orin C, but that proved difficult in the heaving water. Finally, they got the pump aboard and began to tow the Orin C toward land, but the pump was unable to keep up as water kept crashing over the bow.

“They towed him for approximately an hour, an hour-and-a-half,” Powell said. “He was still taking on water. They couldn’t maintain the pump to keep it running. The pump kept clogging with debris from the bilge.”

Finally, the Coast Guard personnel cut the tow line and told the men to get into their safety life suits and get in the water one at a time, Lepere said. The three men aboard the Orin C got into their suits and were standing at the stern of the boat when another wave just engulfed the boat, sending one whole side of it below water.

“The decks were awash and the boat just came out beneath their feet,” Powell said. They were in the water and darkness was everywhere. The Coast Guard, following protocol, began extracting the fishermen one-by-one from the water. Sutherland, according to Powell, was the last man in the water.

“By the time they got to Dave, they found him with his head in the water, unresponsive,” Powell said.

“Our guys picked up the first two guys out of the water and the third was just kind of on his back, backstroking,” Lepere said. “And then he stopped, not moving at all. So we put a swimmer in the water.”

The swimmer got Sutherland back to the Coast Guard vessel, but the fisherman remained unconscious and unresponsive when he was hauled on deck.

“There was no pulse and he wasn’t breathing,” Lepere said. “We began administering CPR and stayed at it for 45 minutes to an hour on the back deck of the 47.”

On Friday, Powell, clearly weary from the previous night’s events, was asked if he’d ever been through anything like that before.

“Many times,” he said. “I’ve done other sea rescues in years past and I’ve been rescued in years past. We don’t leave our friends behind.” 

David “Heavy D” Sutherland seemed like a well liked guy, and his story is tragic.

And Phil Powell should be considered a hero for using his boat to travel 25 miles through high sea waters to tow his boat and successfully saved the lives of two of the three men on board with his boat The Foxy Lady.

So obviously you’d have to be a huge dickhead to sue a good samaritan who tried to save lives right? Well, look who is doing just that.

Joe Orlando Jr.

You may recall that two months ago Attorney Orlando Jr, whose daddy hired him to work for his already successful law firm, called and threatened me not to publish a video of his client Luke Noble verbally abusing his then three year old daughter.

That video is very disturbing, especially considering that Luke Noble is running for a seat on the North Andover Board of Selectmen, and was personally endorsed by Governor Charlie Baker.

Joe Orlando Jr has also been endorsed by Baker when he ran for Gloucester City Council.

Some have argued that Joe Orlando Jr was just representing his client when he threatened me, but the problem is that he lied when he said that the video couldn’t be published because it was being used as evidence in ongoing litigation. That was completely made up, and done solely for the purpose of preventing the publication of relevant information about a man who is running for political office. Since then it’s been revealed that Luke Noble was accused by the same daughter in that video, her therapist, and pediatrician, of sexual abuse. Read the doctor’s horrifying deposition here. Orlando Jr attempted to intimidate me into not reporting the first domino that led to these revelations.

So yea, the fact that he would brag about suing a good samaritan on Facebook is the least surprising news ever. It’s a complicated story that you can read about here but allow me to summarize it:

  • Orlando Jr is representing the estate of Heavy D and the two surviving crew members, who sued both the Coast Guard and Phil Powell
  • Orlando Jr retained Gloucester harbormaster Thomas “TJ” Ciarametaro, a coast guard “veteran,” as a witness against the defendant

  • Coast Guard boy says that Mayor Sefatia Romeo Theken was furious that he would participate in helping to sue a good samaritan, promting her to call him, tell him that he never should’ve been hired to be Harbormaster, and said “If you still want to be harbormaster, you will stop this”
  • Coast guard boy said Gloucester’s lawyer also called him and told him to “do the right thing
  • The lawsuit against the coast guard was dismissed because they have immunity, but the lawsuit against Powell was not
  • The judge called Powell’s actions “admirable” but agreed that Heavy D’s boat was damaged during and because of the tow
  • The fishermen community is furious that Orlando Jr would recruit a member of the Mayor’s administration (Ciarametaro) as a witness to sue a good samaritan who tried to save the lives of other fishermen who are now suing him

The Mayor issued the following statement.

“The brave men and women who operate Gloucester’s fishing fleet have always looked out for each other, and they always will,” she writes. “We in government should do everything we can for their safety, including helping them to keep each other safe. We should never do anything that might cause them to hesitate in coming to the aid of a stricken vessel.”

“I believe that it is the public policy of the City to encourage Good Samaritans at sea,” Theken writes. “And I must question the judgment of any City official who acts contrary to that policy.”

Look, I realize that lawyers are just hired agents to do scummy things sometimes. But no one put a gun to Orlando Jr’s head to make him take this case. He’s doing it because this is the kind of lowlife bullshit he does to live comfortably.

Why would any firsherman ever try to save anyone’s life anywhere near Gloucester now that they know that the Orlando’s are ambulance chasers who will go after everything you own if you try and fail? I guess journalist, mothers of abused children, pediatricians who testify about alleged sexual abuse, and good samaritans are the kind of people they don’t mind intimidating in pursuit of the almighty dollar.

Shameful.

 

 

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46 Comment(s)
  • AgingCynic
    May 18, 2020 at 3:28 pm

    Another Good Samaritan saved one but not both the occupants of a 17’ runabout Over the weekend. Here we go again.

  • Southie changed I didn’t
    May 17, 2020 at 4:30 pm

    The goal in this lawsuit is simple. Heavy Ds survivors need money (I bet Orlando was hired by his adult children or estranged wife/ ex wife/Baby Mother) Obviously he had no life insurance. The policy he had on his own boat didn’t cover personal death. Like most guys in the fishing industry he probably didn’t make good financial or health decisions since commercial fishing is a fucking grind…Orlando & Company are off to a good start with the lawsuit they have a sympathetic judge (as the old adage goes “it’s good to know a great lawyer it’s better to know a bad judge”) now They just need to get a jury to buy into some sob story and maybe get the Good Samaritans insurance to payout due to some negligence.

    • foleyworld
      Casino Scum
      May 17, 2020 at 5:49 pm

      I hate to say it Southie but yer right.

  • george costanza
    The angry taint
    May 17, 2020 at 9:39 am

    Never heard of a high seas ambulance chaser before

  • Turtz McGurtz
    May 16, 2020 at 5:12 pm

    Orlando Sr. has been a shitbag for a very long time. I don’t know jr. but sounds like the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.

  • James Woods
    May 16, 2020 at 6:47 am

    Why no Google reviews?

    Surprised no Google reviews for Joe Orlando’s biz. You would think that more people would post their opinions there. I’m not saying you should go post one, i’m just surprised there isn’t any…. yet

    • Wormtongue
      May 16, 2020 at 9:47 am

      A Just question, my Lord!

  • Fatty D couldn’t swim?
    May 16, 2020 at 1:22 am

    Let’s see
    Let me get this straight? Fatty D didn’t use good judgement, had a poorly maintained boat, then couldn’t swim…. and like every fat leach on society (diabetics, welfare hippos) decide to then try to take more? Give an inch, take a mile….

    • ALL fat people can swim.
      May 16, 2020 at 8:01 pm

      And dance.

      Facts.

    • Casino Scum
      May 17, 2020 at 12:21 am

      Hey! Men who work on fishing boats aren’t leaches on society! Even if they’re fat! Those guys work harder then %90 of the men in the World ever will in a dangerous environment to put food on our tables!

  • Richard Peterson
    AgingCynic
    May 15, 2020 at 11:42 pm

    Mr Orlando has been sued for malpractice I see. Specifics were amazing.

  • Idiot lawyer
    May 15, 2020 at 11:09 pm

    This case may be subject to federal maritime law. If so, I seem to recall there is a provision to the effect that all vessels are required to respond to distress calls from other mariners. If so, then a claim for negligence against a good Samaritan, for how they handle an emergency, would seem problematic. This lawyer probably has never seen or heard of an ocean, or boats for that matter. In his mind, fish come from the supermarket. He knows all about supermarkets because people claim they slip and fall there (but he knows they really don’t — haha). Amoral, unethical idiot. He should team up with Mojo, or Whoreho, or whomever, who represents the aging Greek hookers and the Hugh Hefner wannabe guy who stiffed the cleaning lady.

    • AgingCynic
      May 19, 2020 at 4:52 pm

      Pretty sure he and Dad purport to be Maritime experts. Not sure of validity.

  • Guinea Geisha
    May 15, 2020 at 7:38 pm

    To a lawyer, the word “billable” sounds very much like a boat sinking.

    • Silencio Dogood
      May 16, 2020 at 9:58 pm

      i don’t hear it unless i’m drinking water when i say it.

      • Guinea Geisha
        May 16, 2020 at 11:17 pm

        Well, that’s better than what I’m drinking when I hear it. 😉

  • William Corbett Arnold
    May 15, 2020 at 6:35 pm

    Orlando is a fucking scumbag

  • Ray Patriarca
    Ray Patriarca
    May 15, 2020 at 5:26 pm

    Orlando Scummy?
    Nah.
    He’s a cunt.

  • Carpe carp
    May 15, 2020 at 4:44 pm

    Who eats fish? It’s gross and fishy. You either have to drown it in butter or deep fry it and slather it in tartar sauce (mayo and relish). Nasty!
    Convert those smelly fishing boats into booze cruise slut barges.

  • murdochpatsymcreynolds
    Dr. Fauci
    May 15, 2020 at 4:22 pm

    I assume the Massachusetts fishing ports are closed. They don’t operate til I give the okay.

  • Dewey Screw’em
    May 15, 2020 at 4:06 pm

    Atty. Joe Orlando Jr. is still open for business (978) (317) (3870) during these extraordinary times.
    Let me know if you want to sue the doctors, nurses and EMTs who treat you.

    • Dewey Screw’em
      May 15, 2020 at 4:10 pm

      Correction: -1870. (not -3870)

  • MJ
    May 15, 2020 at 3:43 pm

    Heavy D’s family sucks. I bet the first thing they did after he died was head on over to Gofundme.com. Most lawyers are greedy fucks and will take any case that comes their way but without the greedy family filing, there’d be no case. Powell did the right thing, he shouldn’t be punished for it

  • Orlando sucks but....
    May 15, 2020 at 3:32 pm

    Should the real outrage be at heavy d’s family??? Look into them, I bet they are some real winners.

    Btw, disappointed we haven’t seen a story about the fake harassment at the Cape ice cream place that led to a go fund me for some bratty teen.

  • Independent Thinker
    May 15, 2020 at 3:22 pm

    This is why people don’t want to get involved anymore. Turn the radio off and pretend you never heard anything. But they file lawsuits because they know that the insurance companies would rather settle the case than fight it in court.

  • Fozzy Bear
    May 15, 2020 at 3:07 pm

    Why dont sharks eat lawyers?

    Professional courtesy!

    Waka waka!

  • murdochpatsymcreynolds
    Liawatha
    May 15, 2020 at 2:51 pm

    I’m a lawyer. I don’t have a license to practice in Massachusetts, but that has never stopped me before. Dump Orlando Jr. and hire me! I will sue that Good Samaritan back to the Stone Age!

  • randiguy2006
    Martin Brody
    May 15, 2020 at 2:50 pm

    They’re gonna need a bigger boat.

  • ANGRY GIANT
    May 15, 2020 at 2:48 pm

    Phil Powell and the men and women of the Coast Guard put their own lives at risk to save the three men, and they are heroes.

  • randiguy2006
    Huh?
    May 15, 2020 at 2:46 pm

    WTF is this all about?

    A lawyer you don’t like took another case?

    • Kate just cannot stay away
      May 15, 2020 at 9:43 pm

      Back again today I see…same shit every day. Just put your real name, we all know it’s you. Stupid cunt

  • The Spic Tormentor
    Spic Tormentor
    May 15, 2020 at 2:41 pm

    Jew Orlando Jr. looks like every greasy wop midget fuck-up who is the first to get killed in every mobster movie

    • You must have been somebody's prison bitch
      May 15, 2020 at 4:16 pm

      And it must have been a spic, bitch.

      • The Spic Tormentor
        Spic Tormentor
        May 16, 2020 at 6:50 pm

        Sorry, Juan. I’ve never been to prison and I don’t associate with spics. Nice day out today, that means you can mow all the lawns you missed the days it rained!

    • foleyworld
      Casino Scum
      May 17, 2020 at 12:12 am

      That scummy lawyer looks like a lousy fag if ya ask me. He’s probably dreaming of becoming one of those scary Trans people…. Yuk!!!!

  • sickening
    May 15, 2020 at 2:19 pm

    I hope someone takes this good samaritan’s case pro bono he doesnt deserve any of this.

    • xenonman
      May 15, 2020 at 2:48 pm

      Mr. IGNoble doesn’t look so hot either! LOL

  • xenonman
    May 15, 2020 at 1:43 pm

    Someone should file a complaint with the MA attorney professional responsibility authorities, not that they would do very much.

  • Dick
    May 15, 2020 at 1:35 pm

    The first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers.

  • Hugh Mungous
    May 15, 2020 at 1:29 pm

    The Good news is that the fishing Industry is a tightknit group and one of the last in this emasculated state. I hope they use this cock sucker for chum

    • xenonman
      May 15, 2020 at 1:40 pm

      At least all those who aren’t doing public interest law!

    • Not that tight knit
      May 15, 2020 at 3:35 pm

      The estate of heavy d and the two surviving fishermen are suing other fishermen…..not that tight knit.

    • Well
      May 17, 2020 at 7:40 pm

      The two survivors better hope they win…..they’ll never work on another vessel again

  • Michael S Goodman
    May 15, 2020 at 1:23 pm

    “Scummy lawyer” ? isn’t that a redundancy?

    • WeRFucked
      May 15, 2020 at 1:37 pm

      It’s the opposite of an oxymoron?

      • xenonman
        May 15, 2020 at 1:39 pm

        Yes, exactly! LOL

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