After swimming in the surf with his teenage son close to their coastal house, a defence attorney from Georgia and legal commentator for CNN perished.
Page Pate, 55, passed away on Sunday afternoon after being pulled out into a rip current off the coast of St. Simons Island, Georgia.
The trial lawyer, who spent his time between offices in Atlanta and Brunswick on the coast, had been employed for more than 25 years.
At the time of his passing, he was visiting his wife Elizabeth, his two boys, and their seaside house.
Just after 2 PM, emergency personnel were summoned to two swimmers at Gould’s Inlet beach who were “in danger.”
Acting Gylnn County Fire-Rescue Chief Vinnie DiCristofalo verified that Pate and his adolescent son were the two swimmers.
While the water rescue squad was its route to the site, he said that the “adolescent victim reached the beach unharmed.”
Pate was rescued from the sea and sent to the hospital, where he was later declared dead.
The rip currents on the beach are well-known, according to DiCristofalo, who also said: “I don’t have firsthand knowledge if they were together and was dragged out.”
The lawyer was honoured by Pate’s legal company, Pate, Johnson and Church, which said: “Once the astonishment wears off, it’s simply pain.” And there is no simple solution to get rid of it but time and grief.
The celebrations of this man’s life, however, are something we can also carry with us, in my opinion.
Page had an easy grin, a sincere chuckle, and a terrific sense of humour while being a formidable and somewhat terrifying lawyer in court.
He leaves behind his 53-year-old wife Elizabeth and his two boys, Chatham and Asher.
Which of his boys had issues while swimming with Pate is unknown.
The New York Times, CNN, NPR, and The Associated Press were among the media outlets to which Pate routinely contributed professional comments and analysis on legal matters.
The head of the Georgia Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, Jason Sheffield, described Pate as “a larger-than-life guy and attorney.”
A social media post honouring the attorney was made by state senator Jen Jordan, an Atlanta Democrat running this year for attorney general of Georgia.
“Devastated to learn that my buddy Pate Page passed away this weekend,” she added. We shared a Georgian hometown and were close friends for for 30 years.
He was intelligent, kind, and professional. He could also cross-examine a witness to death. What a loss for his loved ones and his family.
Additionally, Pate was a founding member of the Georgia Innocence Project, which expressed its “heartbreak” at his passing.
They said in a statement: “A visionary founding member of the Georgia Innocence Project twenty years ago, Page was a strong champion for the criminally accused and unfairly convicted.
He stayed involved with our organisation throughout the years, providing case consultation, media strategy advice, and public awareness-building about erroneous convictions and GIP’s activities.