Cole Goldberg, once accused of trying to drown reality TV personality Caroline Schwitzky, celebrated his 27th birthday a free man.
His supporters clapped March 12 as Circuit Judge John Parnofiello acquitted him of attempted murder for holding his then-girlfriend under water at the 2022 Boca Bash. Goldberg hugged his defense attorneys, Marc Shiner and Heidi Perlet, as hundreds watching online filled the comment section with messages of relief and outrage.
Parnofiello’s verdict followed three days of testimony in a West Palm Beach courtroom. Livestreamed to an audience of true-crime junkies and reality TV fans alike, the trial centered on whether Goldberg forced Schwitzky’s head under water to kill her or to save himself from drowning.
Schwitzky, who appeared on the first season of TLC’s “90 Day Fiancé,” argued that the former was true. She told Parnofiello she’d broken up with Goldberg minutes earlier and leapt into the water to swim to shore alone.
She was shoved under within minutes. She testified that she thought a shark had grabbed her until she saw Goldberg’s legs.
“I thought I was going to die,” she said.
Goldberg said the same thing during his testimony: He thought he was going to die. Goldberg argued that he swam after Schwitzky, his girlfriend of nine months, to lead her back to safety, concerned that she was swimming in unfamiliar waters teeming with moving boats.
Along the way, he said, he became exhausted and disoriented. He grabbed her shoulders as an involuntary survival response, with no intent to harm her.
Prosecutor: Lack of injury to victim doesn’t matter
Assistant State Attorney Victoria Suarez pointed to the testimony of several nearby boaters, all of whom echoed Schwitzky’s account.
“It’s a rare day that a domestic violence case is going to have six independent eyewitnesses,” Suarez told the judge. “A day I don’t think I’ve ever seen.”
The witnesses said Goldberg appeared “in a complete rage” as he held Schwitzky under water, throttling her “like a rag doll” until a bystander pulled her free. One witness said Goldberg tried to pursue Schwitzky after she was pulled from his grasp, prompting another to brandish a boat hook to keep him away.
The witnesses said that when confronted, Goldberg said only, “That’s my girl,” making no mention of his difficulty swimming.
Suarez also challenged the defense’s repeated focus on the absence of visible injuries to Schwitzky’s neck. The charges Goldberg faced — which, in addition to attempted murder included domestic battery by strangulation and simple battery — did not require an injury.
Suarez closed by addressing a point Shiner and Perlet pressed throughout trial: Schwitzky’s initial refusal to cooperate with police. Her first words to officers were that Goldberg was a good person trying to go to law school.
That impulse to defend and excuse the violence of a man she loved didn’t undercut her status as a victim of domestic abuse, Suarez said. It made her sound an awful lot like one.
Defense: Witnesses never called 911
Shiner, in his own closing, urged the court to view the witnesses’ accounts as sincere but flawed, shaped by alcohol, adrenaline and four years of investment in a particular version of events.
“I’m not saying they made this story up,” Shiner said. “Their perception is it looked like he was trying to drown her.”
He drew an extended analogy to a personal experience outside his home, in which Shiner nearly called police on a father struggling to control his autistic son. People routinely misread situations, especially under stress, he said.
Shiner called Schwitzky an “opportunist” who sought to profit from the case through civil litigation and media appearances. He also highlighted the fact that none of the witnesses called 911 in the immediate aftermath.
“If you really believed someone had the intent to commit a crime,” Shiner said, “you call the police.”
Suarez, in rebuttal, said the failure to call 911 reflected reluctance to get involved — a reluctance that ended when Goldberg returned to the boat a second time. She argued his return, in tears, was not the act of an innocent man but of someone trying to gauge whether Schwitzky would stay quiet.
‘Everyone’s going to love him and hate her,’ Goldberg supporter says
Because Goldberg opted for a bench trial, there was no jury to weigh the evidence. Parnofiello took the night to deliberate, adjourning court after closing arguments and returning the next morning to announce his verdict.
Preambling his decision from the bench, the judge worked through each charge and potential theory of prosecution methodically, finding irreconcilable conflicts in nearly every element the state needed to prove.
The attempted second-degree murder count turned largely on how long Schwitzky was held underwater and in what manner. Witness accounts ranged from four seconds to 50, unable to agree on whether he’d pushed her down by her shoulders, throat or head.
“Based on this conflict in the testimony, the court has no choice but to find a reasonable doubt,” the judge said.
He also pointed to a detail that first emerged during cross-examination: Goldberg had told Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission officers about 20 minutes into their investigation that he was having difficulty swimming.
There was a clamor in the courtroom as Goldberg’s supporters flocked to hug him.
One, a man who flexed his biceps and pumped his fists for the camera, clapped Goldberg on the back and announced to all: “I told him from day one: Everyone’s going to love him and hate her.”
“That’s enough,” Shiner said quickly. “Stop talking.”
Hannah Phillips is a journalist covering public safety and criminal justice at The Palm Beach Post. You can reach her at hphillips@pbpost.com.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Cole Goldberg acquitted in ’90 Day Fiancé’ Schwitzky drowning
Reporting by Hannah Phillips, Palm Beach Post / Palm Beach Post
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
