| Opinion-Law Enforcement | Date |
| Never allow the police to take your child out the front door. | June 15, 2003 |
| YOU could be the next victim of Law Enforcement | April 13, 2003 |
| Incredibly Disgusting! | April 9, 2003 |
| YOUTH ABUSED BY PASCO COUNTY SHERIFF as mom watches in horror | March 29, 2003 |
| It may be legal but is it RIGHT? | July 9. 2001 |
Never allow the police to take your child out the front door
June 15, 2003
Never allow the police to take your child out the front door. Once they are outside, they have the right to accuse them of being 'high' or perhaps smelling alcohol on their breath, then committing them to JARF for observation. In the case of my son and his friend, they were taken away from my Mother's front yard because the officers claimed to smell alcohol on their breath. They had been to a church camp the week before, where they caught a cold and had both taken a dose of NyQuil, which had been administered by their Grandmother. After 3 days of 'observation', they were released, but I was billed for this stay, which was approx $2,000. I refuse to acknowledge responsibility for this bill.
Furthermore, the kids spent 3 days in a looney bin, surrounded by kids who were detoxing from cocaine and whatever else, many very sick physically and mentally and the staff, was absolutely apathetic and useless.
YOU could be the next victim of Law Enforcement...
April 13, 2003
Ashley Talley was held by the neck by a police sergeant and then SHE was arrested on a charge of battery on a law enforcement officer.
Incredible, but not surprising! This is often the outcome of encounters with cops. The citizen becomes a VICTIM of police brutality. These thugs in uniform act as if they are above the law. They abuse their power in many ways, including excessive use of force. The problem is that these thugs also carry a gun. Ashley Talley is fortunate that Sergeant Quinlin did not shoot her dead! These 'trained' cops often 'fear for their lives' when they are confronted with unarmed or even mentally ill persons. Any one of numerous nonlethal weapons can be used to disable a citizen who is deemed a threat - pepper spray, billy club, tazer gun, rubber bullets, etc. But instead, many cops insist on the ultimate use of force - shooting the citizen to death.
Through my juvenile justice advocacy work with Justice4kids.org, a common thread related to me are incidents of police brutality. Many people are fearful of retaliation and believe that voicing their concerns will only result in threats, harassment or worse. A formal complaint can be filed with the Internal Affairs Department of the police agency, but the use of force is typically ruled 'justified'. It's just another part of the abuse of power. It's a cover-up so that there is no accountability! My own requests for IA investigations resulted in me being treated rudely by someone in the investigation hierarchy; and, after several investigations were finalized as 'unfounded', I insisted that the cases be reopened so that key witnesses be interviewed!
A clear message needs to be sent to the unsuspecting community: YOU could be the next victim of Law Enforcement abuse of power. Be sure that you are accompanied by several witnesses at all times, including a St. Petersburg Times photographer!
April 9, 2003
Pinellas Sheriff's deputies continue to have their criminal acts ruled 'justified'!
Two 'trained' deputies and a K-9 dog struggle with a teenager in a pond. Laboriel Felton, 19, drowned. Dirt and plant material were found in Felton's airway, he had numerous abrasions as well as hemorrhaging on the side of his head. His death was ruled a homicide by a Medical Examiner. Not surprising, State Attorney Bernie McCabe ruled the death accidental, explaining that the deputies used 'ordinary caution' when trying to arrest Felton.
Where is the accountability for police misconduct for a criminal act of murder? Pinellas County Sheriff Everett Rice does not appear to believe in accountability for his deputies. For the past 6 months, I have made attempts to meet with Sheriff Rice about his deputies that abuse the power of their positions. I have made the request on behalf of myself and others that I represent through Justice4kids.org, a volunteer advocacy group. I have linked with other “Victims Of The System” who have also attempted to get an appointment to meet with Rice, to no avail. He will not meet with any of us. I was told by Josephine, an assistant to Rice, "As Sheriff of Pinellas County, he has no reason to meet with you and he gets to decide that."
I am a law-abiding citizen who has been subjected to and also witnessed numerous incidents of overzealousness by law enforcement. I attempt to heighten awareness to an unsuspecting community because YOU could be the next VICTIM of Law Enforcement abuse of power.
Cathy Corry
Letter to the Editor of St. Petersburg Times in reference to their story:
Coroner Rules Homicide; Deputies Avoid Charges
YOUTH ABUSED BY PASCO COUNTY SHERIFF as mom watches in horror!
March 29, 2003
At about 9:30am, Pasco County Sheriff’s Officer Perez rang the bell to my home and I answered it. He asked if my son, J, was home, and I told the officer he was at the home of his friend, Tim. Officer Perez asked if I knew Tim's last name or phone number. I asked the officer if I could have a moment to put on a bathrobe, and to please come inside. We spoke in the dining room and Officer Perez told me he just wanted to “ask” J some questions relating to an event that happened the day before at the W Apartments. He asked me if I knew anyone named Jessica or Sarah, and I responded that I knew a Jessica, but she lived in Spring Hill. When I asked what this was about, Officer Perez told me that my son was seen by three people kicking in a door at the W Apartments between 1:45 and 2pm the previous day.
I told him that my son doesn't get out of school until 1:50, and that usually if his dad cannot give him a ride home then he has to arrange a ride because his license had been revoked for a prior incident for which he is on probation. Officer Perez then asked if J had any previous trouble and I responded "yes".
“Oh,” said Officer Perez, “‘Cause I pulled his name up on the computer and I see a charge for pills.”
“Yes, that was in 10th grade,” I responded.
I then added that J called me on my cell phone at 2:30pm at work and my home number came up, and he also called his dad at 4pm on his cell and the home number came up.
Officer Perez said, "There was plenty of time for him to do it and get home."
Then, Officer Perez looked at a graduation photo collection on my living room table and asked "Is this him?"
I responded in the affirmative. I then gave Officer Perez Tim's phone number, as he had asked, and I told him since I didn't know the address I would gladly take him to the apartment myself, if he would give me a moment to put on outdoor clothes. Officer Perez waited in the patrol car and we left shortly thereafter.
When we got to the apartments, we knocked and Tim's father answered the door holding a coffee cup. The people next door were sitting on their balcony facing the grassy area where everything was to take place a few moments later, having coffee and breakfast, I believe.
Tim's dad called to J and said, "Your mom and a police officer are here."
J came to the door, still groggy from sleep, minus his shoes. Officer Perez asked J if he could talk to him, and asked if J wanted his mother to be around while they talked.
J told Officer Perez, "Since I am only 17, I need my mother here while you speak to me."
Officer Perez then asked J to tell him about what happened at the W Apartments yesterday.
J said, "I got a ride from school from these two girls and a guy. The one girl said she needed to stop at these apartments to get child care money from the father of her child. Since we were all squashed together I had to get out of the car so the girls could get out. When I found out that this was the apartment of a guy who still owed me ten dollars, I went to the door and knocked. There was no answer except a movement from behind the blinds in the window. I hadn't known where C lived before this, but now that I did I was going to ask him for my ten dollars back. I knocked again, loud, but C flipped us all the finger.”
Officer Perez said," I have three witnesses who said you kicked the door in."
J said, "I did not!"
Officer Perez said, "Oh everyone is lying but not you, right? Come on J, declare and I wont arrest you."
I asked Officer Perez what "declare" meant.
J responded "I will not admit to doing something I didn't do."
At this point, Officer Perez said, "Okay, put your hands behind your back!" He cuffed J. J complied, but started to cry because he is on probation and this would violate him.
J started saying, "I can’t believe this mom, I am getting arrested for something I didn't even do, and now I'm gonna be screwed with probation."
J became upset (he was scared and had also not taken his morning medication yet), and Officer Perez held onto the cuffs behind J's back and told J to get down on the ground.
J said," No, I don't want to get on the ground, I am not doing anything!”
Officer Perez tried a few times, unsuccessfully, to tackle J to the ground, as I and Tim's father watched in horror. Finally Officer Perez threw J to the grass on his stomach, has his left knee in J's lower back, and his right hand squashing into J's head. J has very short cut hair and I could see blood on his scalp from where Officer Perez's fingers were already. J was thrown into an ant hill, and tried to turn his face to the other side so the ants would top walking into his nose and eyes.
When he did this, Officer Perez said, "Stop moving your head or I'll pepper spray you!" At this point I was down on the grass next to my son and told Officer Perez, "He is trying to move from the ants!"
J said the same words at that point.
Officer Perez's comment to me was "Back off mam, I am trying to do my job."
I never interfered with the process of his job, but he was being excessive and brutal to my son who was handcuffed, on the ground and getting threatened with pepper spray. J was now extremely upset. I tried to talk to him, from the ground, telling him this was just a misunderstanding and we would get it straightened out. Officer Perez then called for backup. Tim's dad came out with J's shoes, and finally Officer Perez allowed J to sit up, still cuffed. I began to talk to him, talking things from his pockets and putting them into his cap which I had lying face up on the grass, in plain sight of Officer Perez. Little by little J calmed down, and another heavy set, grey haired officer came by and gently escorted J to the back of the patrol car.
I kept asking where they were taking him, what was going on. All I got was," Land O Lakes Jail". I asked if I could run home and get his medication, since he had no yet had it, and was told “No.” By the time J was in the back of the car, Officer Perez had walked to the trunk of his vehicle and one of the other officers at the scene - heavy set grey haired man (name unknown), Officer Conte and Sergeant McAllum - asked him what Officer Perez had on his hands, as he opened his trunk to get out wipes.
Officer Perez said, "Oh, I've got the kids blood on me."
I believe Sergeant McAllum went to his car and got a bottle of liquid soap, put it on the trunk and it slid down the trunk. They laughed saying how he must have just gotten the car from the shop because it was so slippery and highly waxed.
At this point, Officer Perez asked Officer Conte if he should write this up as “…one count or two…” now that J had added "resisting arrest" - as Officer Perez kept telling me when he was on the ground on top of a cuffed J.
Officer Conti told him, "It's your call, but I would do just one."
I kept asking the police officers if I could please go home and give them the bottle of pills for J and they could give J his medication, or if they could take it with them to the jail. Each time I was told “no” and then told that the jail has a full pharmacy and he'll get whatever he needs there. J was very upset in the back of the car, and I asked if they would let me try to talk him down calmly.
I told Officer Perez, “You know, I have been trained by Pasco County in CPI interventions and take downs, and you did not have to do what you did to him.”
Officer Perez's reply was “That's nice," and he kept on writing.
I never got anyone's card or any paperwork telling me where they were taking my son. I asked if I could follow behind in my van and was told “no”.
At one point, Sergeant McAllum peeked into the car from the front seat and told a crying, handcuffed, angry J in the back seat, "Oh, you WILL calm down or I will pepper spray you."
He then told one of the other officers to go get some kind of foot ties, which the officer never did.
If the officers do and say all this while a parent is physically right there, what, in God's name, do they do to the juveniles who have no one around while they are arrested? I pity them. I understand that police work is a thankless job, but you do not have to inflict pain and punishment in the carrying out of your duty.
When J reached the Juvenile Center, he told me later, Officer Perez dragged him out of the car by the cuffs, and slammed the back of his head into the trim around the door of the patrol car. Later on that day, when we were in the hospital emergency room, there was plain evidence of a large bump just where J said he was slammed.
Additionally, when we got J home from the Juvenile Assessment Center (JAC) he had bruises, lacerations on his face, forehead, behind his ear, and three separate cuts on his scalp which he did not have prior to meeting Officer Perez. I also spoke with Nicole at JAC and she told me J was calmly speaking with her. When I asked if he was given his medication she did not know anything of what I was talking about.
She told me, "We never give meds here. It takes about 24 hours to get a pharmacy order done. The officer should have let J take his meds."
Yeah, well I guess someone failed to inform Officer Perez of all he should and should not be doing in the commission of his "duty".
- Pasco County
It may be legal but is it RIGHT?
July 9, 2001
Dear Cathy,
Taped another phone conversation......This time [my son] took two pills that were suppose to be ACID but the guy who sold it to him and friends gave them pills that didn't do anything. So now they are out to get this guy. Now he is doing ACID.....what's next...my GOD.....tonight he says he took two Pink Xanax (which I have no clue how strong that makes them) he couldn't remember things he asked or talk correctly. But I can't call the cops because "it isn't illegal for a 16 year old to be under the influence...."
KW
Dear KW,
It's a shame that we can't get help & direction for our children when they are obviously on a "path of destruction." We need law enforcement to comply with the Marchman Act Statute... so that they WILL take a 16-y/o who is under the influence to a treatment facility for evaluation & assessment. You have so much proof of his drug involvement, and if Rich can't remember things or talk correctly, something is WRONG!
The 3 Clearwater PD officers who arrived at my home on Feb 15 all agreed that Michael was definitely "high" on something, but their Sergeant would not let them Marchman Act him. We also need the treatment facilities (JARF) to honor their admission policy, allowing a parent to INVOLUNTARILY admit their child!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! On Feb 17, JARF turned my son away when I attempted to admit him "involuntarily". Why? Because he did not want to be there! I keep getting the "answer" that their are many good programs, but that the child has to put forth some effort. Yes, eventually the child has to do just that. But, first..... they often need a heavy push......... to begin this effort somewhere, somehow.......... which is one of the reasons for the Marchman Act. And JARF...... I still do wonder what "INVOLUNTARY" really means to DJJ. They must use a different dictionary!
Cathy Corry
VICTIM of DJJ
Mother of Michael Corry, also VICTIM of DJJ
Revised 01/20/2008
