Timeline of recent problems in state prison system

April 1, 2005: A brawl breaks out at a Department of Corrections softball banquet in Tallahassee. Three employees, including Regional Director Allen Clark, are arrested.

June 8, 2005: Two DOC employees charged in federal court with conspiring to steal recyclable materials and money from the DOC's recycling program.

Aug. 30, 2005: Clark resigns amid reports that his name had come up in an investigation by the FBI and the FDLE into activities by Department of Corrections employees.

Oct. 2005: Mark Guerra arrested and charged with grand theft after FDLE investigators alleged he failed to perform work at Apalachee Corrections Institution. Investigators said Guerra, a former minor league baseball player, was hired to play softball in a DOC tournament in Jacksonville.

Oct. 3, 2005: New River Corrections Capt. Keith Davison fired for conduct unbecoming an officer after a party at the Florida State Prison's Bachelors Officer Quarters where a woman was sexually assaulted. Davison later died from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Oct. 11, 2005: Vehicles and utility trailers belonging to six prison administrators and guards are seized by state law-enforcement officers in an investigation into allegations that prison employees misused labor and state equipment.

November 2005: Four off duty corrections officers arrested after being involved in fight at a bar in Starke.

Jan. 24, 2006: Four Department of Corrections officers charged with misdemeanor counts of possession of steroids from alleged incidents in August 2002, February 2003 and August 2003.

Jan 31, 2006: Bryan Griffis, who managed a center that recycles prison trash, pleaded guilty to embezzling from the center. He had also pleaded guilty in December 2004 for his role in an anabolic steroid ring in which he sold the drugs to fellow officers and others.

Feb. 10, 2006: Gov. Bush asks Crosby to resign.

July 5, 2006: Crosby and Clark agree to plead guilty in federal court to taking kickbacks from a contractor. Seven other prison employees are charged in state court with theft and another with accepting unauthorized compensations.

April 24, 2007: Crosby is sentenced to eight years in federal prison for his part in kickback scheme.

April 25, 2007: Clark is sentenced to two years and seven months in prison.

Ex-prison official Clark handed prison term in kickback probe

BY RON WORD
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

JACKSONVILLE - A former regional director of Florida's prison system was sentenced Wednesday to two years and seven months in prison for his role in accepting $130,000 in kickbacks from a contractor.

Allen Clark, 41, could have received 10 years in prison, but prosecutors argued for a lenient sentence. Acting U.S. Attorney Jim Klindt said Clark worked undercover to help agents build a case against his mentor, former Department of Corrections Secretary James Crosby.

After the hearing, however, Klindt said, "Thirty-one months is an appropriate punishment."

Clark and Crosby, 54, pleaded guilty in July to a single charge of accepting kickbacks from American Institutional Services, a company that sold snacks and drinks to prison visitors on weekends.

Crosby was sentenced Tuesday to eight years in prison after U.S. District Court Judge Virginia Hernandez Covington said he bore the most responsibility because he was head of the massive Department of Corrections.

"I can't get around the breaking of the public trust," the judge told Clark, a high-school dropout and former Marine.

Clark spoke briefly, telling the judge, "I am sorry. I could go into it, but that's the bottom line."

Crosby and Clark have each been ordered to pay back $130,000, the total amount received illegally. Prosecutors said Clark would accept kickbacks and deliver part of those payments to Crosby. The kickbacks totaled as much as $12,000 a month.

Klindt told the judge that Clark began cooperating after he and agents confronted him at a meeting in Gainesville in February 2006.

"But for Mr. Clark, we may have not gotten to Mr. Crosby.

But for Mr. Crosby, there never would have been this case," the prosecutor said.

Senate panel: Give boy's family $5M

But the boot-camp settlement could be cut in half when the full chambers vote.

Bill Kaczor
the Associated Press

April 25, 2007

TALLAHASSEE -- A Senate committee Tuesday approved a $5 million settlement between the state and family of a teenager who died after being roughed up by juvenile boot-camp guards, sending it to the chamber floor for a vote.

Lawmakers, though, could still consider cutting the settlement by half, as recommended by a pair of lawyers who reviewed the case on behalf of the House and Senate, while the claims bill (SB 2968) moves through the Legislature.

Gov. Charlie Crist had proposed the $5 million settlement with the parents of 14-year-old Martin Lee Anderson, who died a day after guards kneed and struck him and forced him to breathe ammonia at the boot camp in Panama City last year. It was all caught on videotape by a surveillance camera.

"This was a black eye in the history of our state, and it was quite embarrassing," said Sen. Mandy Dawson, a member of the committee. "I'm really happy that our governor recognized that we needed to move on and ensure this is just not common practice."

The Criminal and Civil Justice Appropriations Committee, chaired by Sen. Victor Crist, voted 3-0 to advance the bill to the Senate floor, where a vote could come later this week.

An initial autopsy report blamed the death on complications from sickle-cell trait. A second autopsy, though, found the teen died from suffocation due to being forced to inhale the ammonia.

The state already has paid his parents $200,000, the most allowed by law without legislative approval.

The bill would pay the remaining $4.8 million of the proposed settlement. The camp, although run by the Bay County Sheriff's Office, was part of a state program under the Department of Juvenile Justice.

Victor Crist, a Tampa Republican who is not related to the governor, withdrew an amendment that would have cut the remaining payment to $2.3 million, as recommended by the legislative lawyers. He said he would prefer the issue to be decided by the full Senate instead of a small committee.

Teen found guilty

He 'needs to pay' for stabbing, victim's mother says Kelvin De La Cruz is convicted of 2nd-degree murder in the fatal fight at University High.

Sarah Lundy
Sentinel Staff Writer
April 25, 2007

Carmen Salicrup closed her eyes Tuesday afternoon as the verdict against her 15-year-old son's killer was read: guilty of second-degree murder.

For five days, the heartbroken mother listened as University High classmates, teachers and homicide investigators described how Kelvin De La Cruz, 17, plunged a knife into her son, Michael Nieves, on Oct. 19 at the school's bus loop.

It hurt to hear the details. Michael suffered seven stab wounds. Others saw De La Cruz with the knife moments before the fight. Nobody warned her son that his opponent was armed.

Then came the waiting.The 12 jurors began deliberating at 4 p.m. Monday. After five hours, they asked to go home for the night. The group returned at 9:30 a.m. Tuesday to hash out the teenager's guilt.

Salicrup waited outside the courtroom with her husband, Ismael Nieves, and dozens of friends and family. Some of Michael's friends and his two sisters -- who attended most of the trial -- returned to school Tuesday. They continued to call and text-message for updates from those at the courthouse.This just proves, Salicrup said, how much Michael was loved.

"People who don't even know us come up to tell me that they are praying for us," Salicrup said Tuesday morning with tissues in her lap for her occasional tears.

She cries for De La Cruz's mother, Maria Ramirez, too.

Like Salicrup, Ramirez attended most of the trial with her daughter and De La Cruz's older sister, Claribel Ramirez. They weren't there for the verdict Tuesday.

Salicrup knows Ramirez has lost her son, too. But in a different way."He needs to pay for what he's done," Salicrup said before jurors made their decision.

Prosecutors wanted De La Cruz to be convicted of first-degree murder, in which the only possible sentence is life in prison. In addition to second-degree murder, the jury could have opted for manslaughter.

After a total of eight hours, the jury returned with the second-degree murder verdict. Now, De La Cruz could face up to life in prison. Orange Circuit Court Judge Marc Lubet set the teenager's sentencing for June 15.

De La Cruz's attorneys -- David Chico, Kelvin Soto and Charlie Tiffany -- left the courtroom first. They said they were relieved he wasn't convicted of first-degree murder."I'm happy with that," Chico said.Salicrup was too distraught to say anything to the reporters and TV cameras crowded at the courtroom door. Her husband and loved ones helped her to the elevator.

Prosecutors Ken Lewis and Ryan Vescio left the courtroom last."I am very satisfied," Lewis said.

"I hope this sends a bigger message to students in Orange County in general who feel they are attracted to this lifestyle of thuggery."

Sarah Lundy can be reached at slundy@orlandosentinel.com or 407-420-6218.

Study questions humane nature of lethal injection

By SABIN RUSSELL
Tuesday, April 24, 2007

Inmates executed by lethal injection may in some cases die by "chemical asphyxiation" while conscious but unable to move, according to a new analysis of California and North Carolina executions.

The study appearing in the online edition of PLoS Medicine _ a San Francisco-based medical journal _ was authored by the same team of doctors and death penalty opponents who raised similar concerns about the procedure in the British medical journal The Lancet in 2005.

That earlier study, which said sub-potent amounts of the anesthetic sodium pentothal were found in the corpses of executed inmates, helped to propel the current debate as to whether lethal injection is more humane or another form of "cruel and unusual punishment."

Lethal injections are typically performed by infusing through an intravenous line overdoses of three chemicals in succession: sodium pentothal, to render the inmate unconscious; potassium chloride, to stop the heart; and pancuronium bromide, to stop respiration.

Dr. Leonidas Koniaris, a surgeon at the University of Miami in Florida and lead author of both papers, said the amount of sodium pentothal used in executions _ particularly the 3 grams employed in North Carolina _ may not be sufficient to knock out the condemned inmates while the two other chemicals do their lethal work. California's protocol required 5 grams.

Either "dose may not be associated with the induction of anesthesia, particularly in bigger men," he said.

As a consequence, during the course of the execution, the condemned man or woman may experience severe pain when the second dose of chemicals _ potassium chloride _ is infused to stop the heart. "It would cause a burning sensation that would be extremely painful," Koniaris said.

Data from California suggest, he said, that inmates died two to nine minutes after potassium chloride was administered, which raises the prospect that the death may ultimately come from administration of the third chemical, pancuronium bromide, which paralyzes the lungs.

"In such cases, death by suffocation would occur in a paralyzed inmate fully aware of the progressive suffocation and the potassium-induced sensation of burning," the authors concluded.

On May 15, California Department of Corrections is scheduled to present a new proposal for lethal injection procedures to U.S. District Court judge Jeremy Fogel, who has blocked executions in the state since February 2006, declaring that the existing protocols were "intolerable under the constitution" but could be repaired.

His decision held up the execution of Michael Morales, a Stockton man convicted of the murder of 17-year-old Terri Winchell, who was raped and beaten to death in 1981.

Kent Scheidegger, legal director of the Criminal Justice Legal Foundation, in Sacramento, said that "all methods of execution involve some pain, and we know that."

He said that if a condemned criminal is administered just the same amount of anesthetic that puts a patient under for surgery, "that would be sufficient to make it not cruel."

Koniaris said his latest study shows that even if the procedures are carried out properly, they may not provide the humane sort of ending envisaged by the public.

"The conventional view of lethal injection leading to an invariably peaceful and painless death is questionable," the authors concluded.

Koniaris said he had no intention of trying to find a way to improve the process. "That's a line most ethicists would not cross," he said.

Former prison chief sentenced to 8 years in kickback scandal

By RON WORD
Asociated Press

April 24, 2007, 4:05 PM EDT

JACKSONVILLE -- James Crosby, the former head of Florida's prison system, apologized for his actions Tuesday moments before a federal judge sentenced him to eight years in prison for taking thousands of dollars in kickbacks from a prison contractor.

"I am truly sorry for what I did,'' said Crosby, 54.

"I failed a lot of people. I failed the people who worked for me.''

Crosby, a 31-year employee of the Corrections Department, also apologized to current Department of Corrections Secretary James McDonough, who also testified and called Crosby "a cancer'' on the DOC.

"Corruption had taken roots, vile things were done,'' he said.

U.S. District Judge Virginia Hernandez Covington said she was disappointed that Crosby had not paid any of the $130,000 he was ordered to pay in his plea agreement.

But his attorney said he had no money to pay because when Crosby was charged he lost more than $1 million in retirement funds.

But the judge was not swayed.

"The public's trust was violated. As head of the department, you have to suffer the consequences,'' she told Crosby.

"Government officials are held to a higher standard.''

Crosby was ordered to report to a federal prison within 30 days and asked the Bureau of Prison to evaluate him to see if he needed alcohol abuse treatment. He will be on probation for three years after he completes his sentence.

After the sentencing, McDonough said, "I think justice has been done.''

Crosby, and his friend and protege, Allen Clark, formerly a regional director for the department, pleaded guilty last July to accepting $130,000 in kickbacks from American Institutional Services, a company that sold snacks and drinks to prison visitors on weekends.

Prosecutors said Clark would accept kickbacks and deliver part of those payments to Crosby.

The kickbacks totaled as much as $12,000 a month. Clark made $94,300 a year at his job, and Crosby earned about $124,000 as head of the department.

David W. Moye, one of Crosby's attorneys, said of the $130,000 collected in kickbacks that Crosby had only received about $30,000, while Clark pocketed $100,000. Clark is scheduled to be sentenced Wednesday.

Acting U.S. Attorney Jim Klindt said the government could ask for a reduction in Crosby's sentence based on his cooperation into the kickback scandal, which is continuing.

"We are pleased with the judge's sentence,'' Klindt said.

Wanda Valdes, whose ex-husband Frank Valdes, was killed in 1999 in a beating at Florida State Prison where Crosby was warden, was pleased with the sentence. Several guards were acquitted in two trials, but her family settled a civil case for $737,500 against Crosby and the corrections officers earlier this year.

"Thank God the system is finally working,'' she said. I am so pleased.''

Executed in U.S. may be awake as they suffocate

The drugs used to execute prisoners in the United States sometimes fail to work as planned, causing slow and painful deaths that probably violate constitutional bans on cruel and unusual punishment, a new medical reviewof dozens of executions concludes.

Even when administered properly, the three-drug lethal injection method appears to have caused some inmates to suffocate while they were conscious and unable to move, instead of having their hearts stopped while they were sedated, scientists said in a report published Monday by the online journal PLoS Medicine.

No scientific groups have ever validated that lethal injection is humane, the authors write. Medical ethics bar doctors and other health professionals from taking part in executions.

The study concluded that the typical "one-size-fits-all" doses of anesthetic do not take into account an inmate's weight and other key factors. Some inmates got too little, and in some cases, the anesthetic wore off before the execution was complete, the authors found.

"You wouldn't be able to use this protocol to kill a pig at the Universityof Miami" without more proof that it worked as intended, said TeresaZimmers, a biologist there who led the study.

The journal's editors call for abolishing the death penalty, writing:"There is no humane way of forcibly killing someone."

Lethal injection has been adopted by 37 states as a cheaper and more humane alternative to electrocution, gas chambers and other execution methods

But 11 states have suspended its use after opponents alleged it is ineffective and cruel. The issue came to a head last year in California,when a federal judge ordered that doctors assist in killing Michael Morales, convicted of raping and murdering a teenage girl. Doctors refused, and legal arguments continue in the case.

More than 2,000 executions

In 2005 alone, at least 2,148 people have been killed by lethal injection in 22 countries, especially China, where fleets of mobile execution vansare used, the editors write, citing Amnesty International figures. Of the53 executions in the United States in 2006, all but one were by lethal injection.

The new review was written by many of the same authors who touched off controversy when they published a 2005 report suggesting that many inmates were conscious and possibly suffering when the last of the drugs was given.

That report was criticized for its methodology, which relied on blood samples taken from prisoners hours after executions.

The new paper looked at the executions of 40 prisoners in North Carolina since 1984 and about a dozen in California, plus incomplete informationfrom Florida and Virginia. The authors analyzed details such as the dose the inmates received, their weight and the time they needed to die.

Most states use three drugs -- thiopental, an anesthetic; pancuroniumbromide, a nerve blocker and muscle paralyzer; and potassium chloride, adrug to stop the heart. Each is supposed to be capable of killing all by itself, but if not, the anesthetic is supposed to render the inmate unconscious while the other drugs do the job.

In 33 North Carolina executions, the average death time was 10 to 14 minutes, depending on the combination of drugs used, the authors report. Calculating each inmate's actual dose, based on his or her weight, they concluded that some did not receive enough.

"The person would feel either asphyxiation or the burning sensationassociated with the potassium," said Dr. Leonidas Koniaris, a surgeon andco-author at the University of Miami. "The potassium would cause extreme discomfort, something like being put on fire."

Even the final drug did not always prove fatal as intended. At least one California inmate required a 2nd dose, and the California warden has said additional doses were used in 2 other executions, the study reports.

Death penalty proponents complained the report's conclusions were based on scant scientific evidence.

"It's more like political science than medical science," said MikeRushford, president of Criminal Justice Legal Foundation in Sacramento.

Steve Stewart, prosecuting attorney in Clark County, Indiana, where an execution is scheduled for May 4, said the simple solution seemed to be to give a higher dose of the anesthetic, which probably would not satisfy opponents who see all methods as barbaric.

"It doesn't matter a whole lot to me that someone may have felt some pain before they were administered poison as a method of execution," he said.

Dr. Mark Heath, an anesthesiologist at Columbia University Medical Centerwho has studied lethal injection cases, took issue with some of the paper's conclusions, but said it generally showed that concerns about lethal injection in its current form "are well-justified."

Editors said they sent the manuscript to 3 independent medical experts for review -- an anesthesiologist, a forensic pathologist and someone in charge of a critical care unit, plus a lawyer.

"We were satisfied" with the science, said Dr. Virginia Barbour, a British physician who is managing editor of the journal, published by thenonprofit group Public Library of Science. "The difficulty of a paper likethis is that there is very poor evidence for all the kinds of protocols used" in lethal injections, but the authors did a good job analyzing what there is, she said.

(source: Associated Press)

Morin Testifies In Trial Over Girlfriend's Father's Death

POSTED: 4:35 pm EDT April 23, 2007

UPDATED: 6:22 pm EDT April 23, 2007

SANFORD, Fla. -- Michael Morin faces the possibility of the death penalty in the death of his girlfriend's father.

Morin said his teenage girlfriend, Courtney Schulhoff, hated her father--because he was allegedly abusive to her -- so much that she plotted his death with her boyfriend Morin as the guy who would swing the softball bat as her father lay sleeping.

"She told me, I left a baseball bat out for you. And I was like, what's the baseball bat for? She's like, Well, just hit him,'" Morin said.

Morin told police he took the bat, walked into the apartment and the next thing he knows the bat has blood on it and he's washing his face.

"And she just asked me, 'Did you do it?' And she had a big smile on her face and I just wanted to puke," Morin said.

"All I could do is just sit there and regret what I had just done. Eating me up inside. I sat there and cried my eyes out, thinking what had just taken place," Morin said.

The defense said Morin’s testimony was all a cover for Schulhoff, that she did the deed.

She's expected to testify for the defense.

Ex-State Prisons Chief To Be Sentenced For Taking Kickbacks

By RON WORD
Associated Press Writer

JACKSONVILLE, FL (AP) -- As head of the Florida Department of Corrections, Secretary James Crosby seemed to be above the fray as guards ran rampant. Some sold and used steroids, fought, hired ringers for the employee softball team and allegedly committed sexual assault, but Crosby clung to his job.

But Crosby, and his friend and protege, Allen Clark, had a nasty secret. Despite their generous state salaries, they were on the take. They admitted last July that they received $130,000 in kickbacks from a company that supplied potato chips, soft drinks and other snacks to weekend prison visitors.

Both are scheduled to be sentenced this week -- Crosby on Tuesday, Clark on Wednesday -- and will probably receive federal prison time. Federal officials have said Crosby could receive up to eight years in prison.

Crosby's attorney Steve Andrews said his client has been working with investigators looking into the kickback scandal. Andrews hopes U.S. District Judge Virginia Hernandez Covington will give the 54-year-old Crosby less than the maximum 10 years in prison.

"Mr. Crosby has cooperated and we hope the government recognizes the extent of his cooperation," Andrews said in a telephone interview. He said he could not comment on how long a sentence he believes Crosby will receive.

Crosby did not respond to a requests from The Associated Press seeking an interview. When he pleaded guilty in July, Crosby said he was ashamed. He blamed alcohol abuse and said he was getting treatment.

Since taking over the prison system with 92,000 inmates and 28,000 employees 14 months ago, Secretary James McDonough has fired several prison administrators and corrections officers and implemented a strict code of conduct.

Crosby and Clark, formerly one of the department's regional directors, pleaded guilty to taking kickbacks from American Institutional Services.

Both have agreed to pay $130,000 in restitution, which is the total amount of the kickbacks. Prosecutors have not said how much each received, but under federal law both are responsible for the total amount.

They also lost their state retirement funds. Crosby received a lump-sum retirement payout of $215,000 and received a $66,000 annual pension.

Then-Gov. Jeb Bush forced Crosby to resign in February 2006 after vowing support for Crosby several times. Prosecutors said Clark would accept kickbacks and deliver part of those payments to Crosby. The kickbacks totaled up to $12,000 monthly. Clark made $94,300 annually as regional director and Crosby earned about $124,000 a year as prisons chief.

Crosby stopped receiving his portion of the kickbacks after Clark resigned in 2005, but Clark continued taking money until 2006, court documents said.

American Institutional Services, based in Gainesville, was a subcontractor of Keefe Commissary Network in St. Louis, which had the contract to supply commissary services to inmates. At Clark's and Crosby's urging AIS was hired by Keefe to handle the cash weekend sales to prison visitors.

Federal and state agents searched AIS offices in Gainesville in early June. After the search, McDonough canceled the AIS contract. McDonough is scheduled to give an impact statement at Crosby's sentencing.

Crosby joined the prison system in August 1975 and became the warden of several facilities. He was a popular choice when Bush tapped him to take control of the department in 2003.

During Crosby's tenure at Florida State Prison, death row inmate Frank Valdes died after a severe beating in July 1999. Crosby was on vacation at the time. He and other guards recently settled a lawsuit with the family for $737,500. Several of the guards were acquitted in trials in Bradford County and prosecutors dropped charges against other corrections officers.

Raised in Bradford County in area known as "the iron triangle" because of its multiple prisons, Crosby received a journalism degree from the University of Florida. He was also interested in politics, serving as mayor of Starke and working as a local volunteer for George W. Bush's 2000 presidential election campaign. He was a delegate to the Republican convention.

Ron McAndrew, a former warden at Florida State Prison and a critic of Crosby, said his complaints about Crosby to officials were ignored.

"For over four years, I beat on the doors of the FBI and Gov. Bush's office in an attempt to show that Crosby was a dishonest person entrusted with too much of the public's money."

"If Crosby gets anything less than eight years, we'll know that back-room politics did the sentencing and not the judge," McAndrew said.

Wanda Valdes, Frank Valdes' ex-wife, had mixed feelings about Crosby's sentence.

"Personally, I feel that Mr. Crosby has been humiliated and punished enough. The higher you are in life, the harder the fall. He was certainly one of the good ol' boys," Valdes said. "Mr. Crosby was an unjust man. I'm not a hateful person or a vengeful person, but one day he and his good ol' boy friends will face God."

Associated Press

Citations Offer Youths Second Chance

By JOSH POLTILOVE
The Tampa Tribune
Published: Apr 23, 2007

TAMPA - Seventh-grader A.J. Williams sat in Franklin Middle School's lunchroom, laughing and joking with friends. He was glad to be free with no criminal record.

Williams, 14, got into a fight outside Franklin early this school year with someone he said bullied him. A school resource officer could have arrested him for battery, but the officer instead took advantage of a new option: offering a civil citation and keeping Williams out of the court system.

Williams signed a form accepting responsibility and completed 10 hours of community service by picking up trash and washing dishes at a community park. He hasn't gotten into a fight since and has learned his lesson, said his mother, Jacqueline Valdez.

"This is a good program to give the kids a chance to get themselves together before they get into real trouble," Valdez said. "Now he knows that he's got to go and tell someone he's being bullied and not fight."

Hillsborough County's school district helped create the civil citation program in August to prevent students from receiving criminal records for misdemeanor crimes on school property. The program, used in all the district's middle and high schools, has been successful for students and the judicial system, school district and state attorney's office employees say.

Here's how it works:

When an infraction occurs, a school resource officer decides whether to arrest the student or issue a citation based on circumstances of the infraction. If a citation will be issued, the officer meets with the parent and the student, who would acknowledge responsibility for his act and agree to the citation's terms.

Students can receive no more than two citations from sixth through 12th grade and are not eligible for the program if they have a prior felony arrest.

They still would face school discipline, such as possible suspensions, for their actions. Williams was suspended, Franklin Middle Principal Joe Brown said.

Daily Bookings Have Decreased

From Aug. 3 through April 12, 397 citations were issued within the district for crimes such as petty theft, minor acts of vandalism and fighting.

About half those students already have successfully completed the program, said Elvin Martinez Jr., community relations administrator for the state attorney's office.

About 12 did not initially complete their community service hours, with most later complying after being sent to second chance court. Herbert Bauman, the administrative judge for the juvenile division of the 13th Judicial Circuit, holds a hearing to see whether the students would prefer completing community service or potentially face charges in court.

Since the program began, the county's juvenile assessment center has seen a decrease in daily bookings from about 50 to about 40, Martinez said.

No official studies have been completed on recidivism rates, Martinez said, but school resource officers aren't reporting that children who have been through the program are continuing to cause disruptions at school.

"The Department of Juvenile Justice fully supports the use of the civil citation program throughout the state of Florida," department spokeswoman Kim Griffin said. "We believe that this program is a tremendously effective tool for law enforcement to use for youths who are first-time offenders and who have committed nonviolent misdemeanor delinquent acts."

Hillsborough County's program was created after a report last year from the state Department of Juvenile Justice. Between July 1, 2004, and June 30, 2005, Hillsborough's school district ranked first in Florida with 2,245 student referrals to the agency.

Issuing a citation is not letting students off the hook, said Dave Friedberg, Hillsborough's school security chief. "It is not a slap on the wrist," he said. "It's not that we're going to look the other way. There are swift and immediate consequences for inappropriate behavior."

There is no requirement to issue the citations. Some school resource officers have done so more than others, but only time will tell how popular the new program will become for all the county's schools, Martinez said.

Friedberg said it is possible that some resource officers have decided not to arrest students or issue citations.

Students Learn Valuable Lesson

Franklin Middle in Tampa has been particularly active, issuing more than 50 citations since the program's inception. School resource officer Lexxie Myrick said she believes it will change students' lives, teaching them a lesson while keeping them out of the judicial system.

Myrick said there are some people who can't change, whether they get civil citations or are arrested. But she said most of those issued citations at Franklin learn a valuable lesson.

"The first day they come out of doing community service, they say, 'I'm not doing this again. I don't want to be here,'" Myrick said.

The best part of the program is that it won't stigmatize students for life, giving them a criminal record at an early age, Brown said. The program keeps students in school and out of court.

It also eases issues with an already overcrowded judicial system, Tampa police Cpl. Scott Buchanan said. Children previously waited several weeks to head before a judge.

"The juvenile criminal justice system is so overwhelmed right now that you really can't spend enough time on serious offenses like rape, robbery, murders," Buchanan said. "It's so inundated with kids getting in a fight at school."

"I'm glad they gave me community service instead of me going to jail," A.J. Williams said. "I'm not gonna get into any more fights."

Photographer Cliff McBride contributed to this report. Reporter Josh Poltilove can be reached at (850) 222-8382 or jpoltilove@tampatrib.com.

Lethal injection may cause pain during executions, UM researchers report in study

By Bob Lamendola
Sun-Sentinel.com
April 24, 2007

The three-drug combination used for lethal injections in Florida and 36 other states does not reliably execute inmates and may leave them feeling pain as they die, University of Miami medical school researchers found in a study released Monday.

"Lethal injection protocols are not adequate to ensure a predictable, painless death," the researchers wrote in the journal Public Library of Science, Medicine.In fact, inmates put to death by lethal injection may get less anesthetic -- pound for pound -- to knock them unconscious and deaden pain than do animals euthanized in lab experiments, the study concludes.

"We absolutely pay more attention to how we kill animals than humans," said co-author Teresa Zimmers, an assistant research professor of surgery.

The study comes as Florida re-examines its lethal injection methods after the botched execution of convicted murderer Angel Diaz in December. Diaz lived for 34 minutes and needed two doses of fatal drugs, because the technicians who inserted the intravenous tube missed his vein.

A special commission told Gov. Charlie Crist last month that the state should rethink the drugs, dosages and training it uses. Crist's staff did not respond to requests for comment about the new study.

Florida injects inmates with sodium pentathol to anesthetize them, followed by the muscle paralyzer pancuronium bromide to stop breathing, then potassium chloride to stop the heart. The dosage of each drug is supposed to be large enough to kill inmates alone.

But the study of 49 executions in North Carolina and California found that a few inmates lived 18 minutes or more and needed extra drugs. Also, the dose of anesthetic per pound was sometimes only half the amount given to kill dogs, pigs and other animals in medical experiments.

Florida and the other states employ the same drugs used in the first lethal injection in 1977.

Oklahoma chose the drugs based on the opinion of the state's medical examiner, who later changed his mind.

Death penalty opponents said the new study backs their calls to scrap lethal injections, saying the results show a possibility for cruel and unusual punishment."No one knows what these drugs do. There's been virtually no scientific review and medical evidence on the lethal injection process," said Mark Elliot, president of Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty.

But death penalty advocates contend the results spring from flawed data.

The drugs clearly kill and render inmates unconscious, even if the process takes a few minutes longer than expected, said Michael Rushford, president of the Criminal Justice Legal Foundation in Sacramento.

"I don't think about the public worries too much about Jeffrey Dahmer … feeling a little sting," said Rushford, who favors abandoning lethal injections and switching to carbon monoxide gas.

Bob LaMendola can be reached at blamendola@sun-sentinel.com or 954-356-4526 or 561-243-6600, ext. 4526.

Community awaits justice

April 23, 2007

Twenty years after rampage, Cruse sits on death row
BY JOHN A. TORRES, Florida Today

Two decades ago today, William Byran Cruse killed six and wounded 14 duringa shooting spree in Palm Bay. Two years later, he was sentenced to death.

But as Cruse, the oldest person on Florida's death row, turns 80 this year,officials say it's unlikely he'll be executed before his natural life ends.

Despite an insanity defense at trial, it wasn't until five years ago thatthe courts declared him incompetent, which stalled his execution.

"You can see he's a madman," said State Attorney Norman Wolfinger, whoprosecuted Cruse in 1989. "Whether or not he will ever be competent to be executed is questionable. Certainly I have my doubts that we will ever get to that point."

"That likelihood angers some, who think Cruse has lived too long since hismurderous rampage on April 23, 1987.

"Don't have a death penalty if you're not going to use it," said SatelliteBeach resident Ronald Grogan Sr., whose son was one of two Palm Bay policeofficers killed by Cruse.

"The system is not doing what it's supposed to do," he said. "When he wassent to prison, he wasn't like he is now. But if you leave somebody in therefor 20 years, anyone is going to go bats."

But others, including the woman the killer took as a hostage, believe Cruse was insane from the start.

"If he's not going to be executed, then it's a crying shame that he wasn't found insane and hospitalized for the last 20 years," said Robin Mucha, who still lives in Brevard.

Also adding to the possibility that Cruse's execution won't go forward: a moratorium imposed on the Florida death penalty late last year because of complications with an execution. The governor's office is reviewing a report issued in March, and a decision is expected soon.

Nightmare begins

Late that Thursday afternoon 20 years ago, Cruse, a 59-year-old retired librarian, stormed out of his home on Palm Bay's Creel Road to confront teens bouncing a basketball in a neighbor's driveway. He was holding a shotgun.

Police said he had run-ins with them before, and he fired and wounded a 14-year-old boy. Then Cruse went back inside and retrieved an assault rifle. He continued to fire shots at his neighbors' homes as he drove away.

Cruse took his white Toyota Tercel to the corner of Palm Bay Road and Babcock Street, where he opened fire on two Florida Tech students, killing both. Two other men were shot and injured as well.

Cruse then drove his car farther south. There he shot and killed 67-year-old Ruth Greene, who was leaving the Publix Supermarket. Cruse drove across Babcock and stopped at Winn-Dixie.

Officer Gerry Johnson arrived at the store and was shot in the leg. He emptied his revolver at Cruse, but missed.

Johnson scrambled from his car and tried to reload. Cruse stalked after him and shot him in the head.

In the weeks before he snapped, police would learn that Cruse was taunted by neighborhood children and often argued with them. There was an indecency report filed, and Cruse, who hated homosexuals, later would tell investigators that Publix employees thought he was gay."

'A little shootout'

Just before he killed the officer, Cruse took aim at Ruben Torres, a 39-year-old mailman at the time, who had stopped at Winn-Dixie to buy shrimp for dinner. When Torres went to the front of the store to pay, he saw employees and other customers on the floor and Cruse in the parking lot.

"I looked toward the glass doors, and I guess William Cruse saw me because he shot at me right through the doors and everything I had in my hand went flying," Torres recalled. "After that I crawled up to the window and saw him walking across the parking lot. I don't know where I got the strength from, but I took the doors off the track and got out of the store."

As Cruse killed Johnson, Torres ran to his car and ducked."I got my gun out of my glove compartment and we started a little shootout, he said. "I was shooting at him and he was shooting at me."

When Torres' went back to his car for more ammunition, a police officer stopped him, thinking he was a second gunman.

Originally criticized, Torres since has been credited with distracting Cruse, which allowed people to escape from Winn-Dixie. He still has the nickel-plated, silver-handled pistol he used that night.

"Nobody ever called me a hero, they called me a vigilante," he said.

Tear gas ends siege

When Officer Ron Grogan arrived at the scene, Cruse shot eight times through the windshield, killing him. The officer had been married only two months.

Cruse then ran into Winn-Dixie, firing at people fleeing through a back exit. He shot 52-year-old Lester Watson in the back.

Forty-five minutes after firing shots at his neighbors, Cruse found two women hiding in the restroom. One he let go; the other, Robin Mucha, would become his hostage.

The siege ended six hours later when Cruse released Mucha and came out soon after, as tear-gas canisters were shot into the store.

Cruse's defense from Day One was insanity -- something that Wolfinger, in the last case he prosecuted himself before a jury, and his staff worked hard to dispel.

"It was obvious that there's something wrong and that he wasn't operating on all cylinders, but that's not insanity," Wolfinger said.

Cruse's next competency hearing is scheduled for July. He did not respond to an interview request by FLORIDA TODAY.

No visitors in years

During his 18 years on death row, Cruse has spent 23 hours a day in his cell, said Gretl Plessinger, Florida Department of Corrections spokeswoman. He is allowed a shower every other day.

She said Cruse has had no visitors in years. His parents are listed as dead, and his wife returned to her native Turkey after the killings. She suffered from Parkinson's disease.

Cruse's sister in Kentucky, where he grew up and spent most of his adult life, has not visited. He moved to Brevard in 1985.

Cruse has well surpassed the average length of stay for death row inmates of nearly 13 years and he was older than the average age of a death row inmate-- 44 -- when he was convicted in 1989.

Carolyn Snurkowski, spokeswoman for the state attorney general, said execution is still a possibility.

"We have had individuals before who need help and get hospitalized and then go back to being on death row," she said.

Police frustrated

Uniformed police officers in Palm Bay wear a blue ribbon with the names of the two fallen officers, credited with saving dozens of lives that night.

"It's a sad state for our society that you have a person seen by over 100 people commit this crime," said Palm Bay Deputy Chief Doug Muldoon, who was an officer at the crime scene. "Here we are 20 years later, you have family members that have been deceased that never saw justice done."

Capt. Doug Dechenne, the lead negotiator for Palm Bay's SWAT Team takes his frustration a step further.

"I think we'd all agree that there are persons who have committed such heinous crimes that they no longer deserve to live amongst" he said. "Cruse is one of those that justice will be served if and when he is put to death.

"I would put my name up to be the one that pushes the button."

Source : Florida Today

Violent Justice: Adult system fails young offenders

Science News Online

Week of April 21, 2007; Vol. 171, No. 16

Bruce Bower

State laws that send some individuals under age 18 to trial and prison as adults have achieved the opposite of what the policy's proponents intended, a new research review concludes.

Transferring young people into adult systems yields substantially higher rates of later serious crimes compared with youths handled by juvenile-justice systems.

Moreover, there's no evidence that shifting some young offenders to the adult-justice system prevents or reduces violence in the general population of children and teenagers.

These findings come from the 14-member Task Force on Community Preventive Services, an independent group funded by federal and private sources. It's reviewing the effectiveness of various efforts to lessen violence committed by and against youths.

The task force reports that young offenders transferred to the adult system are later arrested for violent and other crimes 34 percent more frequently than are their peers sent to juvenile courts and facilities. The task force compared juveniles charged with comparable offenses. Its report appears in a supplement to the April American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

"Even given problems in the juvenile-justice system, transfer to the adult-justice system produces even worse results," says epidemiologist and task force member Robert A. Hahn of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.

Beginning around 35 years ago, increases in violent juvenile crime spurred many states to modify laws so that young people could be tried as adults for serious crimes. By 2004, 44 states and the District of Columbia permitted judges to transfer juveniles to adult-criminal courts. No national data exist on the number of juvenile offenders prosecuted as adults.

Hahn and his colleagues reviewed studies that had compared subsequent serious offenses by juveniles who had been tried and incarcerated either as juveniles or as adults. The team selected six studies that met its quality criteria. The data included youths who had originally committed serious crimes in Florida, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, Washington State, or New York. The studies' follow-up periods after prison releases ranged from 18 months to 6 years.

The researchers then identified three studies that assessed whether states' adoptions of transfer laws led to a drop in serious crimes committed by young people. These data came from Idaho, Washington State, and New York. Although transfer policies vary considerably from state to state, available evidence indicates that they are "counterproductive for reducing juvenile violence and enhancing public safety," the task force concludes.

The increase in criminal offenses among youths transferred to the adult-justice system is "a very robust empirical finding," says criminologist Jeffrey A. Fagan of Columbia University, who directed one of the studies included in the report. Individuals as young as 15 years old may end up in adult court when charged with certain offenses, such as murder or robbery, Fagan notes.

The task force report illustrates the need to restrict adult-court cases to people over age 18, with rare exceptions, remarks Michael Tonry of the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis.

Many state-run programs for juvenile offenders achieve poor results, although innovative programs can improve behavior, says Peter W. Greenwood, who heads Greenwood and Associates, a juvenile-justice consulting firm in Malibu Lake, Calif.

In Florida and Pennsylvania, for instance, teams of professionals provide services and counseling to offenders' families.

It's unclear whether state lawmakers will take the new task force report to heart and restrict transfers. "The politics of crime are far behind the science of criminality," Fagan says.

If you have a comment on this article that you would like considered for publication in Science News, send it to editors@sciencenews.org. Please include your name and location.


References:
McGowan, A., R. Hahn . . . Task Force on Community Preventive Services. 2007.
Effects on violence of laws and policies facilitating the transfer of juveniles from the juvenile justice system to the adult justice system.
American Journal of Preventive Medicine 32(April Supplement):S7-S28. Abstract available at http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.amepre.2006.12.003.
Further Readings:
Tonry, M. 2007. Treating juveniles as adult criminals. American Journal of Preventive Medicine 32(April Supplement):S3-S4.
Sources:
Jeffrey A. Fagan
Center for Crime, Community and Law435 West 116th StreetRoom 634, Box D-18New York, NY 10027
Peter W. Greenwood
Greenwood & Associates1936 Flathead TrailMalibu Lake, CA 91301
Robert Hahn
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention1600 Clifton RoadMail Stop E-69Atlanta, GA 30333
Michael Tonry
University of Minnesota312 Mondale Hall229-19th Avenue SouthMinneapolis, MN 55455

http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20070421/fob1.asp
From Science News, Vol. 171, No. 16, April 21, 2007, p. 243.

Sheriff: Slain family in drug trade

By Allyson Bird

Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Friday, April 20, 2007

With two men indicted as the alleged gunmen in the October murder of a family, St. Lucie County Sheriff Ken Mascara explained Thursday the suspects' connection with the Escobedos, who were sprayed with more than 20 close-range bullets off the shoulder of Florida's Turnpike in Port St. Lucie.

A federal indictment says 23-year-old West Palm Beach men Ricardo Sanchez Jr. and Daniel Troya were responsible for the murders of 28-year-old Jose Luis Escobedo, his 25-year-old wife, Yessica, and their sons, 4-year-old Luis Julian and 3-year-old Luis Damian. The family had moved to Greenacres just months earlier from Brownsville, Texas, just across the border from the Mexican drug hub of Matamoros.

"We think (Jose Luis) Escobedo was more or less the manager of the drug trade these people were involved in," Mascara said.

He said Yessica Escobedo might have counted, packaged and shipped drug money back to Texas or Mexico.

Jose Luis Escobedo's brother, Jose Manuel Escobedo, escaped from federal prison last year after being sentenced to 10 years for conspiracy to distribute to cocaine in 2003. Mascara said the brothers worked together and that the suspected killers worked for them.

"This is probably one of the largest cocaine rings, not only in the Florida, but in the Eastern United States," Mascara said.

He would not name the cartel or say how many others could be involved.

Mascara said investigators identified Sanchez and Troya as the suspected gunmen within three days of the murders. Evidence linking them to the crime includes cellphone records and turnpike photos and receipts.

The indictment says Sanchez called Jose Luis Escobedo five times before he and Troya met the family on the roadway. Asked why the Escobedos were driving home at nearly 2:30 a.m., Mascara said, "We would assume they were in the process of either delivering drugs or picking up drugs."

He said investigators cannot explain how Sanchez and Troya persuaded the family to stop the car and get out.

Evidence shows both men killed the family, Mascara said, because more than two guns were fired from different angles.

The sheriff said detectives are unsure whether they have recovered the murder weapons because 13 guns taken from Sanchez and Troya's home are still being analyzed. Their two roommates, 26-year-old Danny Varela and his 19-year-old girlfriend, Liana Lopez, also were originally named in connection with the killings.

"We do not suspect they were involved at the actual scene," Mascara said. "Perhaps they helped plan it or helped afterward."

Varela and Lopez were indicted with Sanchez and Troya on federal cocaine charges and remain in custody.

They have not swapped information for lighter sentences, Mascara said, and could face charges related to the slayings.

Two 20-year-old men, Juan Gutierrez and Kevin Vetere, also were indicted on cocaine charges but never were considered to be suspects in the killings.

Mascara declined to say whether Sanchez and Troya would face state murder charges in addition to the federal indictment. The sheriff said investigators continue to work with prosecutors to find "the maximum punishment under the evidence."

Two of Sanchez and Troya's charges - armed carjacking resulting in death and using or carrying a firearm in a violent crime - qualify for the death penalty; the sentence would have to be approved by the U.S. attorney general.

Raquel Rios, Jose Luis Escobedo's aunt, said she always has pitied the murder suspects, thinking, "Who in their right mind would do something like this?

"I didn't think I wanted the harshest punishment for these people," Rios, who lives in Spring, Texas, said Thursday.

But when sheriff's Detective Fred Wilson told her about their new charges Wednesday - and the possibility of a death sentence - Rios was happy.

"I didn't think I would react that way," she said. "Maybe there might be mixed feelings."

Rios said she talked to her nephew often and that police came to her door on the day the bodies were discovered. She had to go to the local Wal-Mart store where her sister, Escobedo's mother, was working. And she had to call the ambulance when the woman almost fainted after hearing the news.

Her family hopes state murder charges will follow the federal indictments, Rios said.

But for now, "it's very good news," she said. "Very, very good news."

Boy, 10, to get new start

A judge clears the way for the suspect in the attack on a Daytona man to live with family out of state.

Tanya Caldwell
Sentinel Staff Writer
April 20, 2007

DAYTONA BEACH -- With his bandaged victim looking on, a tiny 10-year-old accused of attacking a homeless man was told Thursday that he could leave juvenile detention and go live with a relative out of state.

Dressed in a baggy white jumpsuit, his wrists and ankles bound with shackles, Drew said little as he stood before Circuit Judge John Watson in a courtroom where everyone towered above the sandy-haired boy.

The fourth-grader pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor battery charge, a less serious offense than the felony aggravated battery charge he faced when he was arrested March 27 after a homeless man was stoned and beaten on a sidewalk in one of Daytona Beach's bleakest neighborhoods.

Drew's mother, Jennie, had asked the judge to release the boy to his aunt, not to her, so he could escape the city's streets and get help in a new place."We don't want him in that neighborhood," Jennie told the judge.

From his tall bench, Watson asked the boy below him, "Do you understand that you could be punished for battery by being locked up for up to a year or placed on probation for up to a year?"

The high-pitched reply: "Yes."Drew will remain under house arrest until Watson sentences him May 15.

The victim in the attack, John D'Amico, sat through Thursday morning's hearing in front of Drew's parents and aunt, wearing a blue pair of Skechers shoes that a church donated to him after the beating.

A white bandage still covered his left eye, which bore the brunt of a concrete chunk that was dropped on his face during the attack. D'Amico doesn't know whether he will ever recover his sight in that eye.

But D'Amico said he is healing "physically, emotionally and spiritually.""I've had a lot of time to heal," D'Amico said outside the courtroom."I don't really feel angry anymore."Besides, he said, it was the other boys who really did the damage, not Drew, the tiniest of the trio.

"I think he just had a bad moment and was following a bad crowd around," said D'Amico, who still avoids that part of the neighborhood.Drew will go stay with his aunt Melanie in Newaygo, Mich.

She stood by his side Thursday and told the judge she's already working to get her nephew back on track. S

he has chosen a new school for him and also has a doctor in mind to get Drew psychological counseling and mental-health treatment.

His parents will be moving to Michigan, too, she said, promising he would return to Florida for any court-ordered appearances.

Jordan, the other 10-year-old accused of beating and stoning the 58-year-old D'Amico, won't have his day in court until May 9.

His lawyers have tried to tell Watson this month that he was acting out of self-defense, but the judge refused to let Jordan go home to his mother.

He remained at the juvenile-detention center Thursday.

The Orlando Sentinel is not using the 10-year-olds' last names or their relatives' full names because of the boys' ages.

A third person charged in the attack, 17-year-old Jeremy Woods, has been at the Volusia County Branch Jail since the trio appeared before Watson April 3.

He will be tried as an adult.

Drew's neighbors said they're glad he's leaving the area.Despite his age and size, they said they lived in fear of what he might do next. Neighbors told stories of the boy hurling a skateboard through a mobile-home window, cursing and threatening people and even swiping toilet paper and shampoo from the bathroom of a neighbor who tried to befriend the boy.

"He should be in jail," Patrick O'Connor said Thursday afternoon after he found out about Drew's release.

"That boy's going to end up in prison for the rest of his life."

In an unexplained twist, a spokeswoman for the State Attorney's Office said a witness was supposed to give a sworn statement to Watson about the plea Thursday afternoon.

Drew and his attorney, Jonathon Glugover, showed up for that appointment, but it was canceled after Glugover saw the assembled media.

After several private conversations with Assistant State Attorney Dustin Havens and the judge, Watson called off the proceedings. "It's been reported to me that he [Drew] must go back to receive his insulin," Watson said.

Watson told the press that the statement would be made at the State Attorney's Office on an undisclosed "later date" and that it would be up to that office whether the statement would be made available to the public.

VOLUSIA HOMELESS-BEATING CASETanya Caldwell can be reached at tcaldwell@orlandosentinel.com 386-851-7910.

Police officer accused of offensive chats with teen

The Associated Press
April 20, 2007, 7:56 AM EDT

OCALA -- An Ocala Police Department veteran was charged with trying to solicit a 14-year-old girl over the Internet, authorities said.

Florida Department of Law Enforcement officials arrested Matthew Wayne Edmonds, a patrolman with the Ocala Police Department, at his home on Thursday.

Edmonds, 32, has been a police officer for 10 years.

The girl notified authorities after she was contacted online in December by a man claiming to be a University of Florida student in his 20s. The man told the girl he wanted a "new girl to support."

The girl replied to the instant message and said she was 14, but the man then sent another message that said it was all right "as long as she didn't tell anyone."

The girl searched MySpace.com for the man's screen name after the chat and e-mailed authorities when his online profile displayed a picture of an older man.

Authorities then began to track several screen names and chatted with a man who they believe was Edmonds by using fake names, according to an arrest report.

Eventually, authorities obtained a search warrant for his home.

Chief Sam Williams said his department has suspended Edmonds without pay. Edmonds has posted a $4,000 bond. It was not immediately known if he had a lawyer.

"It's a sad day for the Ocala Police Department," Deputy Chief Greg Graham told the Ocala Star-Banner. "It hurts when one of our own is accused of something like this."

Dismemberment Death Phase Likely To Take Only Tuesday

By: Carson Walker

SIOUX FALLS -- Jurors could start deliberating as early as late Tuesday whether Daphne Wright of Sioux Falls becomes the first woman on death row in South Dakota, and likely the first deaf woman sentenced to death nationwide.

Wright was convicted Thursday of kidnapping and murder for the February 2006 slaying and dismemberment of Darlene VanderGiesen, another deaf woman from Sioux Falls.

Prosecutors said Wright was jealous of the friendship that VanderGiesen had with Wright's former lover.

VanderGiesen's remains were found in the Sioux Falls landfill and a Minnesota ditch. Her parents have buried her body at her hometown of Rock Valley, Iowa.

At a hearing Monday, Judge Brad Zell denied her lawyers' request to not allow the death penalty because Wright is black, homosexual and deaf.

Public Defender Jeff Larson argued that in a Florida case ruling, an appeals court concluded the defendant's deafness made capital punishment disproportionate.

Deputy State's Attorney Keith Allenstein countered that the ruling in that case stemmed from other circumstances, and Judge Brad Zell agreed.

Larson also argued that Wright should not face the death penalty because of race, disability or sexual orientation.

Of the 21 defendants charged with first-degree murder while State's Attorney Dave Nelson has been in office, he has sought the death penalty against five people and none involved the death of a minority, he said.

"When a minority victim has been involved, the state's attorney's office has never filed a death penalty notice," Larson said.

Nelson, who has been the Minnehaha County prosecutor since 1989, said his office has prosecuted several defendants for murder who were black or homosexual. And Wright used a chain saw to dismember VanderGiesen, which shows depravity of mind under the law not seen in other cases, he said.

"I will just leave it to the court to conclude ... that the state's attorney's office or that I personally have been racially motivated in making charging decisions or in making decisions about the death penalty," Nelson said.

Zell said he didn't see a pattern or indication that "there's any motivation by the state to treat this defendant, based on race, sexual orientation or gender any differently than any other person," he said.

Zell also denied a third request by the defense to prevent the death penalty because depravity of mind requires the person to act immediately. The judge said the issue will be handled in jury instructions on the law.

Nelson said he will put in about an hour of additional prosecution testimony. Larson said he has three main witnesses, including Wright's mother, and should be able to present all of his testimony Tuesday.

The law requires prosecutors to prove beyond reasonable doubt one of 10 aggravating circumstances before jurors can impose the death penalty.

In the Wright case, the element that applies is: "The offense was outrageously or wantonly vile, horrible, or inhuman in that it involved torture, depravity of mind, or an aggravated battery to the victim."

If jurors don't think an "aggravator" was found, they can't impose the death penalty and must sentence Wright to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Even if they do decide that prosecutors proved the aggravating circumstance, they still don't have to sentence someone to death and don't have to give a reason for their vote.

More allegations of abuse at Florida Department of Juvenile Justice (DJJ)

Coalition Against Institutionalized Child Abuse

Vancouver, WA (April 19, 2007)

Florida’s children continue to be abused in DJJ facilities.

CAICA recently reported abuse that has occurred at the Dozier School for Boys in Marianna, Florida.

New information has been released: allegations of abuse at another DJJ program, Manatee Adolescent Treatment Services located at 1324 37th Avenue East, Bradenton, Florida (CCC Incident #2007-02507).

Several days ago Guard Williams at Manatee allegedly choked two youth. The first youth was allegedly chocked on April 15, the exact time is unsure. The second was allegedly choked the same day, immediately following the first youth’s choking incident.

Six witnesses were present. They want to testify on behalf of the boys who were abused but they are scared – scared they will be retaliated against and that their time will be extended. This has been normal practice at DJJ facilities so these boys know what the consequences can be for coming forward.

Preliminary reports are that Williams choked the first youth until he was unconscious, his eyes rolled back in his head and he started to “flop around like a fish”. When he came to, Williams allegedly repeated this process four times. He then proceeded to do the same thing to the second youth. Witnesses attempted to turn on the cameras so the incident would be caught on tape. The police were called and a report was filed.

No child in America should have to live daily in fear for their safety. However, we have seen time and time again where children who are serving time in the Florida Juvenile Justice System are living in fear for the safety.

The sad part is that it is the adults who the children fear – these adults should be there to care for, guide, mentor, and teach them. Some of these children have spent their entire adolescents, up to five years or more, locked up in this fear-based system. Instead of showing compassion these guards treat these boys worse than criminals. Most of these children, some who enter the system as young as 12 years old and younger, did nothing that should have resulted in them being locked up and abused, neglected, or killed.

Some of these children have been incarcerated for borrowing their grandmother’s car or a school-yard fight, things that are normal teen behavior that should be dealt with at home.

Father Mark Caldwell, who knows all too well about abuse at DJJ, wrote to DJJ Secretary, Walter McNeil, stating, “It seems we now have another problem that requires your immediate attention. A staff member at this facility (Manatee) as you can see is causing permanent brain damage to these youth by cutting off oxygen to their brains, this is a very severe type of abuse, I expect to hear of your prompt action today to remove this

Related Links
Caica websitecaica.org/
Blogmanateeadolescenttreatmentservices.blogspot.com/
Abuse at Dozier School for Boysjustin-caldwell.blogspot.com/
Contact Information:
Isabelle ZehnderFounder and PresidentCoalition Against Institutionalized Child Abuse (CAICA)360-369-6547izehnder@comcast.net
Web

Virginia Tech shootings revive national debate over gun laws

By Ken Kaye
South Florida
Sun-SentinelApril 19, 2007

It's just as easy to purchase guns in Florida as Virginia, as both are among the most lenient states when it comes to limiting the sale of firearms, gun control advocates said Wednesday in the wake of the murderous rampage at Virginia Tech.

Indeed, buying guns can be easier in Florida because it has no restriction on the number of weapons that can be bought at one time, making it a popular shopping location for gun traffickers, said Zach Ragbourn, spokesman for the Brady Campaign To Prevent Gun Violence, a nonprofit organization based in Washington, D.C.

Virginia, on the other hand, permits only one gun to be purchased within a 30-day period.

"Florida has laws on its books that we find very troubling," Ragbourn said. "They make it much more difficult for the state to have gun control."

His group gives Florida an F-plus on its gun-control report card, compared to a C-minus for Virginia.

Still, Virginia's laws are considered overly lax by some because it has no waiting period for gun sales, although it does require a background check that uses a nationwide database. Florida requires a three-day wait and background checks, and allows counties to extend that to five days, as Miami-Dade County has done.

Likely, none of those restrictions would have stopped Virginia Tech student Cho Seung-Hui from killing 32 people and then himself Monday, observers said. The reason: The gun purchases were made long before the shooting attacks began.

Cho bought a Glock 9 mm and a box of ammunition for $571 from a gun store in Roanoke, Va., five weeks ago, authorities said. He is thought to have purchased a Walther .22-caliber semiautomatic pistol in February. Both transactions appeared legal, officials said.

In any case, the worst on-campus bloodbath in American history has restarted the national debate on gun control, with some arguing that more people equipped with firearms on the Virginia Tech grounds might have cut short Cho's killing rampage."If there had been armed people on campus, when he walked into the first classroom, maybe four or five people would have shot him and it would be over," Nick Lipschultz, owner of P.A.R. Firearms & Supplies in West Palm Beach, said.

Lipschultz, who said he sells hundreds of guns each year to law-abiding people, said criminals will gain access to firearms no matter how many gun control laws are imposed.

"I've never seen a bad guy in my store," he said. "Criminals buy guns on the streets. They don't obey laws, so passing more laws is not the answer."Gun control advocates disagreed.

Jon Vernick, co-director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Policy and Research in Baltimore, said nationwide, there are almost 30,000 gun-related deaths per year, or about 80 per day. Florida has almost 2,000 gun-related deaths per year, or on average of more than five per day, according to the national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.

"Yes, we should be talking about ways to prevent mass shootings like this," Vernick said. "But we also should be talking about ways to stop all other guns deaths every day."

Vernick said the real problem is with unregulated gun sales, generally made in private transactions or on the black market. In those cases, states have no way to conduct background checks.

"It's estimated that about 40 percent of all gun transactions in the United States are through private sales, so that's just a gaping loophole in gun sale laws," he said.

While some states' gun laws are loose, others are stringent, such as those in New Jersey and Maryland, he said. New Jersey requires an arduous background check to obtain a gun license, and Maryland has a seven-day waiting period.

Meanwhile, a Florida House committee quashed a bill Wednesday that would have forced businesses to allow employees to keep guns locked in their cars in company parking lots. The National Rifle Association backed the bill.

Although Rep. Baxter Troutman, R-Winter Haven, asked that a vote be postponed in light of Monday's tragedy, the House Environmental and Natural Resources Council defeated the bill 10-4.

"Part of your job is to vote on difficult issues and sometimes that's hard to avoid," said Rep. Stan Mayfield, R-Vero Beach, who voted against the legislation.

The bill has failed for two consecutive years in Florida.

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report. Ken Kaye can be reached at kkaye@sun-sentinel.com or 954-385-7911.

OnlineTake a look at how errors, weak laws keep concealed weapons in questionable hands around Florida in a special investigation at Sun-Sentinel.com/guns.

Fort Myers: Dateline NBC Correspondent Chris Hansen was back in Southwest Florida.

Hansen is best known for his confrontational program "To Catch A Predator". He was here last year to bust predators in Fort Myers. But many of those predators have yet to be prosecuted. NBC's Patrick Flanary talked to Hansen about why that is.

Chris Hansen's appearance took place on the very day state Senators passed a new law getting tougher on online predators.

Wednesday night the familiar correspondent took his message from the screen to a packed student union at FGCU.

Speaking to child welfare advocates, the confrontational correspondent addressed just how easy it is for potential predators to befriend your son or daughter.

"Those guys are very adept at breaking down the traditional barriers that exist between adult and child society, said Hansen."

Once the men cross that line, they're eligible for harder time behind bars. In fact, the very act of traveling to visit a child for sex now means a maximum of 15 years in the state of Florida.

Just last year , two dozen men walked into a Fort Myers home and left in handcuffs.

"It was an eye opening investigation, certainly one of the most significant ones we've done, said Hansen.

Teamed up with Perverted Justice, camera crews, and decoys, Hansen told NBC2 out of 10 investigations, he found what Dateline found in Fort Myers most disturbing.

We had things happen that you never could have predicted. A guy walks in naked, a guy brings his son, said Hansen

Govenor Charlie Crist has declared the third week of April as " Cyber-Crime Awareness week."

10-year-old pleads no contest to misdemeanor battery in homeless beating

Tanya Caldwell
Sentinel Staff Writer
April 19, 2007, 10:25 AM EDT

One of the two 10-year-olds accused of beating and stoning a Daytona Beach homeless man pleaded no contest to misdemeanor battery on Thursday.

Drew will be released from juvenile detention and remain under house arrest while living with an aunt in Michigan.

Circuit Judge John W. Watson said Drew faces a year in jail or probation for his role in the attack that drew national attention to youth violence on the homeless.

Drew's mother said she was happy the boy was being released, but she and other family members would not comment further.

John D'Amico, the victim, attended Thursday's hearing and said he wasn't angry any more, adding that Drew was not one of main aggressors in the March 27 attack.

The fate of another boy, Jordan, was postponed earlier this week after his defense attorney asked for more time to determine whether the boy is competent to stand trial.

Jordan has a learning disability and a history of behavioral problems, defense attorney Tonya Cromartie said in juvenile court Monday.

A third boy arrested in the attack, 17-year-old Jeremy Woods, will face a separate trial in adult court.

The Orlando Sentinel is not publishing the last names of the 10-year-olds, or their relatives, because of the boys' ages.

Florida Supreme Court Affirmed the Denial of Roger Cherry

19 April 2007

Florida Supreme Court affirmed the denial of Roger Cherry

CapDefNet has a strong roundup of some of last week’s federal court decisions:

On April 12, 2007, the Florida Supreme Court affirmed the denial of Roger Cherry’s second motion for postconviction relief and his motion for determination of mental retardation. Cherry v. State, ___ So.2d ___, 2007 WL 1074931 (Fla. April 12, 2007). At the mental retardation hearing, one of the experts testified that he administered the WAIS-III and Cherry received a full scale IQ score of 72.

Turnpike slayings suspects indicted

By DEREK SIMMONSEN AND TYLER TREADWAY
staff writers

April 19, 2007

Ricardo Sanchez and Daniel Troya were the gunmen who killed a family of four on the side of Florida's Turnpike in Port St. Lucie last year, according to a new federal indictment made public Wednesday.

Sanchez, 23, and Troya, 23, were charged with conspiracy to commit carjacking, armed carjacking resulting in death and using a firearm during a crime of violence in the Oct. 13, 2006, deaths of Jose Luis Escobedo, 28, his wife, Yessica, 25, and their sons, Luis Damien, 4, and Luis Julian, 3.

Armed carjacking and using a gun in a crime of violence both carry the possibility of the death penalty.

There are set procedures in place for any federal case that could involve the death penalty, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Steve Carlton said his office would follow them. A final decision on whether to actually pursue the death penalty in the case will be made by Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez, he said.

Sanchez and Troya — who were named "persons of interest" in the case back in October — already were indicted on federal drug charges stemming from a search warrant served at their Palm Beach County home connected to the investigation of the killings. Two other people who also were named "persons of interest" were not mentioned in the new charges describing the deaths.

According to the indictment, Sanchez made a phone call to Jose Luis Escobedo from the Port St. Lucie area between 7 and 8 p.m. on Oct. 12, the day before the bodies of the family were discovered. He made another call just before midnight from Port Orange, another near Titusville and a final call shortly before 2 a.m. Oct. 13 from Roseland, near Sebastian, the indictment states.

At about 2:18 a.m., Troya drove a burgundy van on the turnpike after getting a ticket at the Fort Pierce toll plaza. At 2:19 a.m., Sanchez called Escobedo from the Midway Road area in St. Lucie County.

At about 2:25 a.m., Sanchez and Troya had Escobedo stop his black Jeep Cherokee on the turnpike.

"Thereafter, Ricardo Sanchez and Daniel Troya brandished firearms, shot four occupants of the black Jeep Cherokee, stole the Jeep and left the area," the indictment states.

After that point, the two made numerous phone calls to each other while driving south through St. Lucie, Martin and Palm Beach counties. Between 2:19 and 3:30 a.m., Sanchez drove the stolen Escobedo Jeep to West Palm Beach, where it was abandoned, the indictment states. It was found by investigators three days after the killings.

Detectives have said they believe the killing of the Escobedo family was related to the theft of drugs, money or both, and investigators were led to the drug operation by apparent references to several of the defendants in drug ledgers found in the Escobedos' Greenacres home in Palm Beach County. Attorneys for Sanchez and Troya did not return a call for comment Wednesday.
Carlton declined to say whether more charges could be pending or if the others named as "persons of interest" will be charged in connection with the killings. He also declined to elaborate on the current charges and how they were filed.

Chief Assistant State Attorney Tom Bakkedahl said Wednesday his office and the St. Lucie County Sheriff's Office are continuing to investigate the shooting. The fact that federal charges were released in Palm Beach County "doesn't affect our ability to possibly issue our own charges, including homicide charges."

In a prepared statement issued late Wednesday afternoon, St. Lucie County Sheriff Ken Mascara said the indictment "has significantly advanced the investigation by the St. Lucie County Sheriff's Office. That investigation is active and ongoing."

Mascara said investigators in his department "continue to work closely with their federal counterparts ... All of us working on this case have one goal: Justice for the victims and their families, especially the two innocent children who were murdered along with their parents on Florida's Turnpike in St. Lucie County."

derek.simmonsen@scripps.com
tyler.treadway@scripps.com

Cash Feenz ringleader pleads lack of attorneys, fights death penalty fate

Originally published — 7:59 a.m., April 17, 2007
Updated — 11:05 a.m., April 17, 2007

A Lee County judge said this morning that the indictment of nine people, many of whom were teenagers, in the Cape Coral Cash Feenz case was so unusual that it depleted local resources for qualified and available attorneys.

Defense attorney David Brener wants the death penalty pulled off the table in the murder case against his client, Kemar Johnston, because weeks passed after his Nov. 2 arrest before he was appointed a lawyer. Judge Thomas Reese did not immediately rule on Brener's motion but he agreed that, with so many defendants in the Cash Feenz case, the area's stable of eligible attorneys was quickly exhausted.

Johnston, 20, is accused of being the ringleader in the October 2006 attacks on Alexis and Jeffrey Sosa. The teens were reportedly beaten and tortured in his home, and ultimately killed the night of his birthday party.

He is charged with two counts each of first-degree murder, kidnapping and aggravated battery.