Saturday, March 22, 2008

Another Florida Inmate Claims To Have Been Dumped From Wheelchair


Matt McKinney, Multimedia Executive Producer
2/28/2008
WFMY News 2, NC

More trouble for a Florida Sheriffs Department. Another disabled
inmate has come forward claiming abuse at the hands of detention
deputies.

Tampa, FL – There is more turmoil and trouble for the Hillsborough
County Sheriff's Office. Another disabled inmate has come forward
claiming abuse at the hands of detention deputies.

This latest wheel chair dumping incident actually took place in
October of 2006, when deputies at the Orient Road Jail went into
Benjamin Rayburn's cell, dumped him onto the floor and left him lying
there. Video shows the deputies doing nothing as he tried to get back
up and falling over.

Attorney John Trevena is representing Rayburn. He also represents
Brian Sterner, who we first told you about two weeks ago.

While Trevena admits Rayburn is no angel, he says the man didn't
deserve the treatment he got at the jail.

Trevena says this latest wheel chair dumping incident shows the first
one was not an aberration, and he adds some people at the Sheriff's
Office are in denial about the way the jail operates.

"The officers take it into their own hands and mete out justice as
they see fit," Trevena says. "They should not be handled that way."

Col. David Parish, who runs the jail, says the incident report
justifies the force by the deputies.The incident report says Rayburn,
who wanted to go to the infirmary, became extremely agitated upon
learning he would have to stay in his cell. Rayburn began to scream
profanities, and made a swiping motion with an unknown object, and
then threw it at a deputy.

"It doesn't matter if you're Hannibal Lector," Tervena says. "No one
should be beaten if they are in jail. No one should be where someone
is running off at the mouth, thrown out of a wheel chair. No one
should be subject to any form of abuse."

Source: Mike Deeson, Tampa Bay's 10 News

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