JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – A third family is filing a wrongful death lawsuit against a troubled and now shuttered Jacksonville dive school.
The News4JAX I-TEAM has been investigating CDA Technical Institute on the Trout River since April 2022 after uncovering three drowning deaths linked to the school. Two more students also died on campus from other causes, according to police records.
MORE: Jacksonville diving school suspended after 4 student deaths
The wife of 34-year-old Victor Pierce is the most recent person to file a suit in Duval County court.
Pierce’s stepfather, Dean Urenda, said it’s necessary for the family’s push for justice.
“Victor was his own person,” he said, remembering his stepson with a smile. “He didn’t follow any template. He did what he wanted to do.”
Urenda, who said he raised Pierce since he was 7, described him as an Army veteran with a soft heart, especially for his two children.
“These boys are beautiful,” he said. “They’re just like Vic. They have their minds at a young age. They don’t stop.”
Sadly, Pierce’s story stopped on Feb. 12, 2022. As a veteran, he was using his GI bill to become a commercial diver at CDA Technical Institute in Jacksonville. That day he was training at an offsite lake when instructors told police he went under and didn’t come back up.
“I swam back to him, went down, saw the regulator was out of his mouth,” one instructor told officers in a conversation captured on body camera. “As soon as I got to the surface I said call 911!”
Pierce died at the hospital. The medical examiner determined alcohol was a factor in his drowning.
“The impact that Victor would have had on this world,” Urenda said. “And the impact that he had on this world while he was here was amazing. And to say that the world lost a great person, husband, father, is an understatement.”
Now, Pierce’s wife has filed a wrongful death suit against the school. It was served this week.
Among the allegations:
- CDA failed to have communication devices or standby rescue divers
- The company failed to inspect the equipment to make sure it was safe to use
- They failed to properly maintain the equipment
- And they failed to properly train the students and instructors
The suit does not mention how or why he was allowed to dive under the influence.
This is the third wrongful death suit to be filed against the for-profit dive school.
The families of Fausto Martins and Isaiah Johnson are also suing after their loved ones died at CDA events.
The News4JAX I-TEAM also uncovered police reports showing a student died of a drug overdose on campus in 2019 and another student died by suicide at the school in 2022.
For the past year, News4JAX has been trying to get answers from CDA’s leaders, including owner Captain Ray Black. We’ve never gotten a response besides no comment from a receptionist. Now, the phone’s disconnected.
The school has since closed after losing its accreditation. The Trout River campus is now empty and a pool has gone dry.
Urenda hopes the wrongful death lawsuits and continued scrutiny will save lives.
“I want it to be out there for everybody to see, for everybody to be able to read about for the next person that wants to take a school to be able to read up and make a good, educated decision on the outcome of their life, because it’s it was life and death,” he told the I-TEAM. “But I just don’t want these people associated with this school to just go out and start another school or to just go out and get hired on somewhere else. Because they are a problem.”
After News4JAX began reporting on the problem, the trade group that regulates commercial diving in the US tried to do an emergency audit on CDA. However, they said the owner did not comply. That group, ADCI, ultimately pulled accreditation and had to step in to help some dive students transfer to other schools to get their certifications.