PALM BEACH COUNTY, Fla. - The mother of Perry Cohen, a Jupiter teen who was lost at sea during a fishing trip with his friend Austin Stephanos last summer, plans to drop a lawsuit against the Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission and the parents of Austin Stephanos, according to her attorney.
She initially filed a complaintto stop FWC from giving Austin's phone back to Blu Stephanos and Carly Black. It also asks that the FWC be prevented from returning the shipping container with Austin's boat and other personal items to any private party.
The suit claims that on the day the boys went missing, Perry's phone was not working and he used Austin's phone to send messages to family and friends. The Cohens believe that the information on the phone must be collected by tech experts who have the expertise to extract it without destroying it.
Pamela texted this message to NewsChannel 5's Alyssa Hyman:
In the interest of cooperation and to help both families learn more details about what happened to our boys, we accept the offer of Blu Stephanos to share the contents of the iPhone with us and the FWC. Therefore we will be withdrawing our lawsuit as soon as FWC receives the written consents it needs from both families to put the iPhone in the hands of the best impartial iPhone extraction experts available, in a proper legal chain of custody. Our written consent has been sent to the FWC and is reproduced below. We have full faith and confidence in the FWC to provide equal access to the contents of any retrievable information that is relevant to the tragedy, and to maintain confidentiality.
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission said that Austin's phone that was recovered with the vessel has been returned to his family.
Attorney: Cohens prepared, hopeful to drop suit if Stephanos family signs consent to allow FWC to keep and search recovered iPhone. @WPTV
— Alyssa Hyman (@AlyssaHymanWPTV) April 26, 2016