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Jail Abuse Complaints Multiply

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By MIKE WELLS, The Tampa Tribune

Published: March 1, 2008

TAMPA - Hillsborough County Sheriff David Gee said Friday he has doubts about some of the recent allegations of abuse and excessive force in the jails.

"I was wondering where all those people were" when the alleged abuse occurred, Gee said. "Why didn't they file complaints when it happened? It makes me skeptical of their claims."

At a news conference Friday, former inmate Paul C. King held up a stack of grievance forms he said he filled out while in jail. King said he either got no response or got responses saying the force used by deputies was justified to restrain him.

King appeared with his attorney, John Trevena, at the lawyer's Largo office. King is one of at least seven former and current inmates who have retained attorneys to file their complaints, Trevena said.

The claims ranged from being dumped from wheelchairs to being slammed against walls to having limbs painfully twisted.

Gee said the department is addressing policies at the jail through an independent review committee set up this week.

"I'm doing what I think is the right thing to do," he said.

As far as calls for a federal investigation are concerned, Gee said, "If a higher authority thinks they should be involved, I'm sure they will be."

Trevena called Gee's review board "window dressing."

"It's an attempt to make it look like this hand-picked panel will make an independent, objective decision when most members have ties to local law enforcement," he said. "Nothing good is going to come out of that."

Gee talked about some of the complaints, including King's.

Methods Of Keeping The Peace

In a surveillance video recorded in July, King, 40, was shown being covered with a hood by a deputy after being strapped to a restraint chair and left in a booking-room holding cell at Orient Road Jail.

Earlier in the video, a male deputy is shown shoving King against a cell's Plexiglas wall and throwing him down to the floor. The video does not show King fighting back or physically provoking the deputy.

Gee described the hood as a "spit mask" used to keep inmates from spitting on others.

King, who was in jail on a disorderly intoxication charge, denied spitting at any deputy.

Gee said the hood is a common jailhouse method of keeping order. He doesn't want deputies and inmates at risk of diseases transmitted through body fluids.

The restraint chair is another common method of keeping peace behind bars, Gee said. If an inmate is unruly, he is forced into the chair that restrains his movements.

"It's for people who don't follow directions," he said. After a short while in the chair, "they become more compliant."

King said the worst of the abuse happened out of the sight of cameras.

King said when he was released from the chair, two deputies jammed their knees into the back of his knees, which were up against a wall. He said he pleaded for them to stop, and they told him to call himself a slur used for female genitalia.

"They forced me to say vile things about myself just to humiliate myself," he said. "A couple of other deputies were standing nearby and laughed."

'Criminals Are Still Human'

Trevena's law partner, Bethany Jackson, discussed another new client. She said state prison inmate Nick Molfetto, 42, was injured when he was transported to the jail in August to attend a court hearing six days after spinal surgery.

Jackson said that Molfetto, who is serving a 30-year sentence for drug convictions, theft and escape from custody, told a deputy he couldn't walk but the deputy still placed him on the floor of a van that was not compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act.

After a 3 1/2 -hour drive, he was being forced to sit in a chair for 12 hours before being sent to the infirmary for medical attention, Jackson said. This caused swelling around the surgical staples; a doctor replaced the staples but wouldn't let the inmate go to court the next day.

"I'm not saying he's an angel," Jackson said of her client's criminal history, "but he was emphatic with officers that he needed to be transported in an ADA van.

"Inmates and criminals are still human," she said.

Citing the number of complaints made by Hillsborough inmates, Trevena demanded the appointment of a special prosecutor from outside Central Florida.

"We need that independence to bring some kind of integrity back into the system," Trevena said.

He also said the allegations should fall under federal oversight as civil rights violations and that a class-action civil lawsuit is possible given the number of complaints.

Reporter Mike Wells can be reached at (813) 259-7839 or mwells@tampatrib.com.

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