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Ragusa Says Jail Mistreating Her

News Channel 8 photo by PAUL LAMISON

Stephanie Ragusa says she's not asking for special treatment and she has had no problems with other inmates.

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By TOM BRENNAN | The Tampa Tribune

Published: March 4, 2009

TAMPA - Stephanie Ragusa believes she is being harassed by the staff at the Hillsborough County jail, where she is being held without bond on charges of molesting two teenagers at the school where she taught.

Ragusa, 29, made the complaints in separate hand-printed letters to Hillsborough County Chief Circuit Judge Manuel Menendez Jr. and Hillsborough County Sheriff's Col. David. M. Parrish, the former commander of the office's Detention Department.

"I am, for lack of a better word, harassed, by several deputies on staff here and now, more recently, by officers of higher rank," Ragusa wrote Menendez, though misspelling his name as Menedez. She also misspelled Parrish's name in his letter.

Ragusa is a former Davidsen Middle School math teacher. She was arrested in March and accused of having sex at least three times with a 14-year-old. She was arrested in April and charged with having sex with another teenager as many as 20 times. She has pleaded not guilty and is awaiting trial.

Ragusa said every time she complains about her treatment, she is put on 23-hour lockdown or some other type of special confinement.

She said she is not asking for special treatment and she has had no problems with other inmates.

"Your honor, I have a healthy sense of where I am," she wrote Menendez. "I am very concerned about the environment I am in here, but mainly, that no one in this facility seems to want to listen to me or any of my concerns."

Ragusa told the judge she is specifically concerned that jail staff is opening her mail to her attorney Robert A. Herce, who could not be reached for comment.

"The integrity of my criminal defense is being compromised by the security of legal mail," she told the judge.

Debbie Carter, spokeswoman for the sheriff's office, said legal mail is opened in the presence of the inmate to assure it doesn't contain contraband.

She also said Ragusa is constantly complaining.

"She is continually bringing things to our attention," she said.

Ragusa asked the judge for his advice in dealing with her concerns.

Her letter to Parrish mirrors those complaints but also challenges the jail's administrative rules that have been used to discipline her.

"I am beginning to feel restrictions are put on me out of annoyance or possible discrimination because of the nature of my charges," she wrote Parrish.

Again, Ragusa said she wasn't trying to cause problems but need guidance in dealing with the rules.

A status conference in Ragusa's case is scheduled for March 19.

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