Boater Was Drunk When He Killed Swimming Jersey Shore Woman, Lawsuit Says

ATLANTIC CITY, NJ — The daughters of a 79-year-old woman killed in a boat crash last summer have filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the boater, alleging that he was intoxicated and "grossly negligent" in the crash.

"The grieving daughters of Norma Michaels have brought this lawsuit to obtain justice for Norma, to hold accountable the defendant, Jeffrey Jastrzembski, who has been indicted for his reckless operation of a boat while intoxicated, and to promote public awareness of the lethal danger of drinking and boating," said Robert J. Mongeluzzi of the Philadelphia-based Saltz Mongeluzzi Bendesky law firm, representing the daughters in the lawsuit.

Michaels, 79, was swimming just off the dock of her Atlantic City townhouse near the Dorsett Avenue Bridge with a friend on Aug. 12, 2023.

In the Intracoastal Waterway, now 54-year-old Jastrzembski of Atlantic City was driving his 20-foot Robalo vessel, which struck Michaels.

According to the lawsuit, he sped the boat towards her before making a late, aggressive portside turn, causing the boat's outboard propeller to directly strike Michaels, delivering fatal injuries to her head, neck, torso, arms and legs.

Jastrzembski was indicted in March for aggravated manslaughter. Prosecutors allege he had a blood alcohol content between 0.19 percent and 0.23 percent at the time of the crash.

"Justice to us means holding the defendant to account for his repulsive actions and, being proactive – in our mother's name – doing whatever we can to support agencies that license and supervise boaters," Michaels' three daughters (Hope Cohen, Lori Kushner, Cristy Michaels) said in a statement. "We support re-doubling enforcement and public information efforts to prevent intoxicated boaters from injuring, even killing, innocent swimmers like our precious mother."

According to the attorneys, Jastrzembski ignored pleas from spectators on shore to reduce his speed as he wildly careened the boat in a "no-wake" zone directly towards Michaels and her swimming companion, who remains traumatized by the tragedy. An eyewitness stated that he saw the drunken boater, after he struck Michaels, throw cans or bottles overboard.

"Family and friends of Norma are also adamant that more can and must be done to prevent other senseless injuries and deaths on New Jersey's waterways resulting from the outlandish and illegal conduct of impaired boat operators, like the Defendant, who flaunt and break safe-boating laws," said attorney Andrew R. Duffy. "An experienced boat operator, a neighbor of Ms. Michaels, the Defendant knew the consequences of boating while intoxicated – his blood-alcohol level was more than twice the legal limit when arrested – and still, for reasons to be determined, took to the controls of a powerful outboard craft and in so doing, violently took a precious life."

The lawsuit seeks a jury trial, along with unspecified and compensatory damages.