Garland George Curtis
Crew Member Raped Passenger
June 1, 1998
A female passenger, 19, sailing aboard Dolphin IV says that she was raped by a crew member, Garland George Curtis, 31, a ship's waiter from Jamaica on June 1, 1998. The victim says the crew member entered a cabin she was sharing with a friend and attacked her.
At trial in Orlando, Florida, Curtis denied the charges, but DNA evidence linked him to the crime.
On October 28, 2002 he was convicted by a jury of aggravated sexual abuse and given a sentence of 17.5 years and a fine of $3,347.02. He had been represented by federal public defender James Skuthan.
The teenage victim, never named, was from Brevard County, Florida.
On August 11, 2004, in United States v. Curtis, 380 F.3d 1311 (11th Cir.2004), resolving the merits of Curtis' appeal, the court rejected his motion for a mistrial or new trial, affirming his conviction.
Curtis is being housed in the CI Rivers Correctional Institute in Winton, North Carolina at this time, with a scheduled release date of May 31, 2016.
CI Rivers is a privately run prison . Approximately 15 percent of the Bureau's inmate population are confined in secure facilities operated primarily by private corrections companies and to a lesser extent by state and local governments, and in privately-operated community corrections centers.
Contract facilities help the Bureau manage its population and are especially useful for meeting the needs of low security, specialized populations like sentenced criminal aliens. Staff of the Correctional Programs Division in Central Office provide oversight for privately-operated facilities.
The Cape Canaveral Cruise Line's (Dolphin Cruise Lines) Dolphin IV was based in Cape Canaveral, Florida. The 718-passenger Dolphin IV departed from Port Canaveral for two and four-day trips to the Bahamas and Key West.
Dolphin IV was built in the Deutsche Werft shipyard in 1956 and was retired in 2000.
There is a special note about this case. It is related to the case of James Dickson Bell II. The story is here
