And here's Carol Marbin Miller's full article as it ran in the
Miami Herald...An abbreviated version of the below article (missing the last three paragraphs) was also published on August 1st by Bradenton.com under the title
State balks on paying for teen's funeral.
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The Miami HeraldPosted on Friday, 07.29.11
JUVENILE JUSTICEFlorida finance chief won't pay for funeral of teen who died in lockupState juvenile justice chiefs had sought to help bury a teenager who died in their custody. But the state's top finance administrator won't let them.BY CAROL MARBIN MILLER
CMARBIN@MIAMIHERALD.COM
Maritza Perez, the mother of Eric Perez, at a press conference Monday afternoon. (Damon Higgins/The Palm Beach Post)
Eric Perez (Photo provided)The state's top financial officer is refusing to pay the funeral expenses for a teenager who died in state custody after unsuccessfully seeking medical attention for several hours, despite a three-year-old policy to pay such costs.
Juvenile justice administrators had offered to pay up to $5,000 in funeral costs to bury 18-year-old Eric Perez, who died at the West Palm Beach detention center on July 10. But after the state cut a check to the Tillman Funeral Home, Florida's chief financial officer ordered that the check be destroyed, records show.
Perez, who was detained at the Palm Beach County Juvenile Detention Center on a marijuana possession charge, would not have been the first child whose funeral expenses were paid by the state.
In November 2008, the Department of Juvenile Justice paid for the funeral of a Tampa Bay-area youth, said agency spokesman C.J. Drake. In January 2009, the agency helped bury a Highlands County youth. Drake could not identify the children due to confidentiality laws, he said.
"The Department of Juvenile Justice has a policy dating from 2008 authorizing the payment of funeral expenses when a youth dies in our custody," Drake told The Miami Herald.
"The chief financial officer printed the check and sent it over to us," Drake said, referring to the agency's offer to pay for Eric’s funeral. "Then they said, 'Whoa, don't send it.' " The funeral home, Drake said, has received no payment from the state.
In a July 26 email to DJJ, the CFO's chief of auditing, Mark Merry, said DJJ "does not have statutory authority to make the payment."
Perez's mother, 47-year-old Maritza Perez, was too distraught Friday afternoon to discuss her son's burial expenses, which totaled $7,600.
"They killed him in there," is all Perez could say Friday. Her attorney could not be reached for comment.
Drake said state officials are still discussing the funeral expenses. "I'm confident that we can work out an agreement so that the expenses are paid," he said Friday afternoon. He added that DJJ Secretary Wansley Walters is committed to paying the expenses.
But a spokeswoman for the finance chief seemed to suggest late Friday that the CFO's office is unlikely to budge.
In an email to The Herald, a CFO spokeswoman, Anna A. Alexopoulis, said Chief Financial Officer Jeff Atwater "wants to have resolution on this claim, and in a timely manner for the family."
"The Department of Juvenile Justice was advised that they did not have the statutory authority to pay for funeral expenses," Alexopoulis wrote. "DJJ was also advised that a more appropriate venue to address this claim is the Division of Risk Management," which defends the state when it is sued. A lawyer for Perez's mother has informed authorities of the family's intent to file a lawsuit.
Perez turned 18 on July 2, a few days after he was arrested. At about 1:30 a.m. on July 10, he complained his head hurt, and he vomited and appeared to be hallucinating for the next seven hours. A guard on duty in Perez's cellblock told The Herald that he wanted to call for an ambulance, but both his supervisor and the lockup's superintendent forbade him from calling 911.
Perez was pronounced dead at 8:09 a.m., minutes after paramedics arrived. Records show the youth had stopped breathing before paramedics got there.
In the days after Perez's death, Walters, the state's top juvenile justice administrator, suspended five guards and the lockup's superintendent, Anthony C. Flowers. Walters later fired one guard and his supervisor.
Walters told The Herald this week that she will release to Perez's mother seven to eight hours of video shot from two cameras that captured her sons's final hours at the lockup. Beyond that, the agency has declined to discuss the youth's death in any detail, citing ongoing investigations by both DJJ's inspector general and the West Palm Beach police.
Paolo Annino, a Florida State University law professor who heads a legal clinic for children and disabled people, praised juvenile justice chiefs for both developing the burial policy and seeking to "do the right thing" for Perez's family. He suggested the state is obligated to bury the teen, since authorities failed in their basic duty to keep him safe. State finance chiefs, Annino added, should rethink their objections.
"If they looked at this carefully, and they still arrived at this conclusion, then there is something seriously wrong," Annino said.
Copyright 2011 Miami Herald Media Co.