Despite previous assurances to the contrary on the part of the Florida DJJ, the State Attorney's Office is now trying to prevent release of the video to Eric Perez's mum...
An abbreviated version of the below article (sans the last six paragraphs) also appeared in the
Sun-Sentinel on August 1st under the title
Grand jury to probe teen's death in West Palm jail.
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The Miami HeraldPosted on Monday, 08.01.11
JUVENILE JUSTICEGrand jury to probe teen's death in lockup As Eric Perez's death at a West Palm Beach lockup continued to reverberate Monday, prosecutors are trying to seal a key piece of evidence: a video of the teen's final hours.BY CAROL MARBIN MILLER
[email protected]
Eric Perez (Photo provided)State prosecutors in West Palm Beach have convened a grand jury to look into the death of Eric Perez, a teenager who stopped breathing at a juvenile detention center after he sought medical care unsuccessfully for hours.
The Palm Beach State Attorney's Office, which is spearheading the death investigation, also has asked a judge to prevent juvenile justice administrators from releasing a video that details Perez's final hours at the lockup. Perez, 18, died at 8:09 a.m. July 10, about two weeks after he was arrested for possessing a small amount of marijuana, and several hours after he sought medical care for a severe headache and vomiting. The cause of his death remains undetermined.
In a court pleading filed Friday, the State Attorney's Office said releasing the video to Perez's mother, who has requested it under Florida's public records law, "will cause irreparable harm to the pending criminal and grand jury investigation."
Last spring, lawmakers passed a revision to the state's public records law forbidding the release of pictures or recordings that show a person dying. The bill, which took effect last month, included one exception: spouses or parents of the deceased still may be given copies of such recordings. Maritza Perez, the dead teen's mom, has made a formal request for it.
Perez, 47, told The Miami Herald on Monday that prosecutors offered her a deal: They would give her a copy of the video if she vowed not to show it publicly. Perez said she declined the offer, because she wants everyone to know how her son died.
"Only the mother has the right to the tape, and I want the tape, and I'm going to show it to the world," Perez said. "I'm not going to let this die. I'm not going to let Eric die for nothing."
"I don't want other kids to suffer what my son went through. I don't want any other mother to suffer the way I have suffered," Perez said.
The fate of the seven to eight hours of video may be decided Tuesday morning. Prosecutors will ask Palm Beach Circuit Judge Stephen A. Rapp at a 10:30 hearing to keep the video under wraps.
"This request is made to preserve the integrity of the pending criminal investigation, not to thwart the interests of the parents of the decedent," Assistant State Attorney Andrew R. Slater wrote in the motion.
The controversy surrounding the youth's death continued to swirl Monday, as a spokeswoman for state Chief Financial Officer Jeff Atwater blasted juvenile justice administrators for seeking to spend $5,000 from the Department of Juvenile Justice's budget to help Perez bury her son.
"My office is now working directly with the family's attorney through our Division of Risk Management, and my commitment is to have a check covering funeral expenses for this young man in the hands of the family within 24 hours," Atwater said in a prepared statement. Late Monday, Atwater's spokeswoman said a check had been mailed to the family overnight.
But Atwater did not stop there. He also accused juvenile justice administrators of adding to the family's pain by botching the expenditure. "Regrettably, this tragic delay would not have occurred if the Department of Juvenile Justice had not blatantly ignored guidance from my office. In the future, I would hope that DJJ would be more transparent in its dealings with the public and with taxpayer monies," Atwater wrote.
His spokeswoman, Anna Alexopoulis, said "the proper venue" for paying the funeral expenses would have been the CFO's Office of Risk Management, which defends the state against lawsuits — not the DJJ operating budget. Perez has notified the state of her intent to sue.
"DJJ failed to submit the claim to Risk Management even after our department had advised them to do so," Alexopoulis said.
A DJJ spokesman, C.J. Drake, replied: "We're pleased that this matter is finally being resolved in favor of the young man’s family."
On Saturday, The Herald reported that DJJ had sought the $5,000 to help the Perez family defray the costs of the teen's funeral under a policy implemented in 2008. Since then, DJJ administrators have paid the funeral costs for two other youths who died while in the agency's care, one in 2008 and another the following year. After first cutting the check last week, Atwater's office then instructed DJJ to destroy it.
Also on Monday, DJJ administrators confirmed they had fired a guard who had been the subject of a lengthy article in The Herald last week. The guard, Laryell King, had previously worked for several years at the agency's lockup in Orange County, but was fired after leaving youths unsupervised — including locking up one boy in a room for 45 minutes, until he banged on a door to get help. Her personnel record included a strong warning: "NO rehire in any position." Nevertheless, she was rehired in September 2010 at the West Palm Beach detention center. King could not be reached for comment.
King's dismissal letter, which is dated July 29, said King had failed to complete her probation at the West Palm Beach lockup "satisfactorily," and Florida law allowed her to be "terminated at any time without the right to appeal such action."
Copyright 2011 Miami Herald Media Co.