Naya Rivera‘s son Josey has filed a wrongful death lawsuit four months after the Glee alum accidentally drowned in a lake, according to multiple reports. Josey’s father Ryan Dorsey filed the suit on the 5-year-old’s behalf. Dorsey and Rivera were married from 2014-2018.
Josey is suing Ventura County, California, the United Water Conservation District and the county’s Parks and Recreation Management for wrongful death and negligent infliction of emotional distress.
The complaint states that her July 8th death was preventable and that the boat she and Josey rented did not meet the U.S. Coast Guard‘s safety standards.
“The boat was not equipped with a safely accessible ladder, adequate rope, an anchor, a radio or any security mechanisms to prevent swimmers from being separated from their boats,” the court documents claim. “Disturbingly, later inspection revealed that the boat was not even equipped with any flotation or lifesaving devices, in direct violation of California law, which requires that all pontoons longer than 16 feet be equipped with flotation devices.”
The suit adds that Lake Piru did not have “a single sign anywhere — not at the entrance, at the dock, at the popular swimming area of Diablo Cove, not anywhere — warning of the lake’s strong currents, low visibility, high winds, changing water depths, underwater caves, ledges and drop offs, or the trees, brush and other debris that congest its waters due to the vastly changing water levels and winds.”
The docs cite the lake’s “deadly history,” noting that “more than two dozen people have drowned” there since 1959.
Dorsey has moved in with Rivera’s sister Nickayla Rivera so that they can raise Josey together.
