No Criminal Charges To Be Filed In Amusement Park Death Of 6-Year-Old Girl
GLENWOOD SPRINGS, Colo. (CBS4) - It has been five months since the death of six-year-old Wongel Estifanos, her family still grieving their loss is also pushing for change.
"They will do everything they have to on their own to protect other people, but the criminal justice system should do their part," Attorney Dan Caplis, who represents the family, said.
Wongel fell to her death on a ride at the Glenwood Caverns Amusement Park. It happened over the Labor Day weekend last year during her family's first trip since the pandemic began.
An investigation by the state agency that regulates the industry found the only restraint, a lap belt, on the ride was not secured.
Investigators determined operators bypassed an alarm that alerted them to the issue and instead launched the ride anyway.
"The parents' big concern is if a child can be killed this way with all of this recklessness and there aren't any criminal charges, what kind of message does that send?" Caplis said.
The Garfield County District Attorney announced his decision not to file criminal charges in the case, saying the office could not prove beyond a reasonable doubt any one person or entity acted with criminal negligence or was reckless beyond a reasonable doubt.
"There's a videotape of this happening and other evidence the parents believe strongly identify who did what. The parents just don't understand the explanation for them to not file charges," Caplis said.
The family released a statement in response to the District Attorney's decision saying:
Once again our daughter's life has been treated as cheap and meaningless. First by the amusement park and now by the DA.
We never wanted the people who killed our daughter to go to jail. But for the DA to let them off with nothing says our daughter's life was worth nothing. Justice should be equal. Our little girl should matter as much as a big corporation.
What a terrible message to send. That in Glenwood Springs someone can recklessly kill a child and not even get a ticket.
The DA tells us there wasn't even a drug test done of the operators after they killed our daughter. Why not?
The DA tells us he knows the killing of Wongel was a "gross deviation from the standard of care", but that he can't prove which of the operators did it. That doesn't make sense to us.
We want the full truth. We want justice for our daughter. We want to protect others. The criminal system failed our daughter. We will now go to civil court and prove it on our own.
Caplis says this decision has only re-traumatized the family.
"To lose a child this way and then have the criminal justice system stand up and say, 'Oh no, there is nothing to see here, no criminal charge here,' that just makes the pain so much worse," he said.