Erm off the top of my head I can think of at least 2 charges they could get the teens with. Florida has a Duty to Rescue law and like
@PsychoKitty pointed out, they failed to report a death.
They don't have to be "involved" for either of those charges. Standing around watching is all it takes for both of them. And there's plenty of proof they did that.
I couldn't find a Duty to Rescue law in Florida, and the local Police Chief, Michael Cantaloupe (what's with this place, anyway? Sounds like a breakfast buffet--Police Chief Cantaloupe of Cocoa, Florida)...anyways Chief Cantaloupe says "“As horrible as this video is the laws in the State of Florida do not obligate citizens to render aid or call someone to render aid to a person in distress," and he claims to have done "research of the statutes and consultation with the State Attorney’s Office."
As far a a brief jaunt around the net over coffee can tell, Duty to Rescue laws may have a lot of caveats anyway. If Florida does indeed have one (which I couldn't find online in an admittedly brief and haphazard search) the teens probably had no duty to rescue since they'd never started
trying to help him. the FindLaw site says:
"At common law and in most states, people, generally,
have no duty to help or rescue another person. You would only have a duty to help if you created the peril, you started trying to rescue or help, or you have a special relationship, such as parent-child, with the person in need."
They also list an exception for Florida, but it's for someone who witnesses a sexual battery, not someone who callously watches someone die when they might have helped.
At least the mayor of Cocoa seems fired up about it:
Parrish said of the decision to pursue charges, "While this in no way will bring justice for what occurred, it is a start."
"In a case like this we struggle to understand how anyone could be so cold and heartless and then learn that there are no laws in Florida that obligate someone to render aid or call for someone to render aid for a person they see in distress," he said. "If this case can be used as an example to draft new legislation, then I am committed to move forward to make that happen. More so, may this tragic incident, which has shocked all of us, cause each of us to examine ourselves and our responsibility to one another."
"I implore the State Attorney’s Office to follow through and file the charges presented by the Cocoa Police Department!" he added.
The charge would be "'failure to report a death under Florida Statute 406.12,' a misdemeanor." For anyone who did not follow the HuffPost link above from Valasca:
Cantaloupe told reporters he’s charging the teens under a state statute typically reserved for medical examiners obligated to report deaths. The statute,
according to Tampa’s Bay News 9, reads:
“It is the duty of any person in the district where a death occurs, who becomes aware of the death of any person occurring ... must report such death and circumstances to the district medical examiner.”
Cantaloupe said, “It will be kind of a test case … As far as we know, the statute has never been used in this way.”
http://abcnews.go.com/US/police-rec...eens-recorded-mans-drowning/story?id=48769120
http://blogs.findlaw.com/law_and_life/2015/05/in-which-states-do-i-have-a-duty-to-help.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry...owning-disability_us_597229f3e4b00e4363df267c