Family of girl who drowned in tribal lake sues pueblo, local government agencies
Jul. 19—The parents of an 8-year-old girl who drowned in one of the Okhay Owingeh Tribal Lakes in 2022 have filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the pueblo government and several state and local government agencies.
Yesica Rodriguez and Marcos Hernandez accuse of the pueblo of failing to properly maintain the lake and allege local and tribal public safety agencies failed to call in a New Mexico State Police search and rescue team in a timely manner.
The couple say in the complaint — filed in state District Court on Wednesday, the second anniversary of their daughter Jazmin Hernandez's death — they were watching their children play on the shoreline when "suddenly" Jazmin and her brother were "rapidly sucked into the deep part of the Lakes by saturated loose sand — or, 'sinking sands' — on the shoreline and pulled underwater."
"Bystanders attempted to save Jazmin, but the water was too [murky] for her to be visualized," the lawsuit says. There is no further mention of the brother in the filing.
"An employee of Defendants watched and observed the minor decedent and her brother become submerged in the Tribal Lake but neglected to alert emergency responders or to intervene," the complaint alleges. Instead, it says, the worker "relocated his truck farther away from the site of the drowning to avoid becoming involved."
Española Fire Department rescue workers were dispatched to the scene just before 5 p.m. July 17, 2022, and searched in vain for the child before state police instructed them to cease searching and sent in a dive team that retrieved the girl's body from the lake around 10 p.m., according to news reports at the time and an incident report provided by the Española Fire Department. The agency declined to comment on the lawsuit.
The lawsuit accuses the pueblo of failing to maintain the lake in a safe condition for the public — despite charging admission and advertising the opportunity to fish there — or to post signs warning about the dangerous conditions.
The Ohkay Owingeh Police Department, Ohkay Owingeh Fire and Rescue, and the Espanola Fire Department neglected to contact state police for over 11 minutes, the lawsuit says.
"At that point, it was too late," the complaint states. It seeks an unspecified amount in damages.
None of the defendants — which include Rio Arriba County, the city of Española, state and several individual employees — responded to requests for comment on the lawsuit Friday.
The family's attorney declined to comment.
