The girl, only 18 months old, fell through a window on the 11th floor of a Royal Caribbean company ship when it was docked in San Juan, Puerto Rico on July 7..
The Puerto Rican authorities then explained that the man peeked out the window and, after losing control, dropped her into the void. The family, originally from Indiana, explained that the man placed the girl by the window thinking it was closed, but she fell through the unprotected hollow.
"These criminal charges are pouring salt on the open wounds of this grieving family," said his lawyer, Michael Winkleman, who represents the family in a civil lawsuit against the cruise firm, said on Monday.
"Clearly it was a tragic accident, and the singular goal of the family remains that something like this will never happen again," he explained, "if cruise lines had simply followed the proper safety guidelines for the windows, this accident it probably never would have happened."
Chloe's parents, Alan and Kimberly Wiegand, said they did not understand why there was an open window on such an elevated floor, "a tremendous security risk that cost the girl her life."
See also: Two-year-old girl dies at SJM when being rammed by a truckKimberly Wiegand defended Anello, who is his father, in an interview with NBC, explaining that he often held Chloe against the glass at her older brother's hockey games so she could beat him with his handyman.
"He was extremely hysterical," she explained about her father, "what she has repeatedly told us is that she believed there was glass, she was crying over and over again."
"You can barely look at him without crying," he said of the man, "she was her best friend."
The family traveled from Indiana to sail the southern Caribbean islands, a journey that began and ended in San Juan in Puerto Rico after passing through St Maarten, Dominica and Barbados.
The mother recalled the time of the incident: "I only saw Sam [Anello's family name] standing next to the window wall screaming and banging him. There was someone from Royal Caribbean who was trying to stop me. I kept saying, take me to where my baby is, where's my baby? I didn't even notice the window."
"I looked at it and there was no water down there, it was concrete. Honestly, losing our baby in this way is simply unimaginable," he concluded.
Royal Caribbean conveyed its sentence in a statement following the incident, claiming it was working with the Puerto Rican authorities to clarify it.
A cruise line spokeswoman said Monday in a statement that she would make no further statements. "This was a tragic incident and, out of respect for the privacy of the family, we referred it to the authorities for further comment."
Anello is held on $80,000 bail, and is due to appear in court on November 20, according to the Associated Press news agency.
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