A round-up of Sunday editorials from Florida’s leading newspapers:
Tampa Bay Times — Deputies should have been disciplined
The Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office sent the wrong message through the ranks by failing to hold its deputies accountable for the inadequate care of an inmate who later died from a stroke. While the incident raises questions about other players who had a hand in this tragedy, from county paramedics to the jail’s private-sector medical care provider, Sheriff David Gee has control over the jail and the responsibility for those who are in it.
The Sheriff’s Office and Armor Correctional Health Services, the private company that provides medical care to prisoners, paid $1 million this year in a wrongful death settlement to the children of 51-year-old Allen Daniel Hicks. He was arrested by the Florida Highway Patrol in May 2012 after crashing his car into a guardrail on I-275. Speaking incoherently and unable to use his left side, Hicks was arrested and booked into the Orient Road Jail, where he spent much of the next two days motionless on a cell floor. Nearly 36 hours after his arrest, soaked in his own urine and with his brain choked of blood, Hicks was finally taken to Tampa General Hospital and diagnosed with an ischemic stroke. He fell into a coma and died within three months.
Internal sheriff’s office records show the treating neurosurgeon was “extremely critical” of the care Armor provided Hicks as well as the Sheriff’s Office’s delay in getting him to the hospital. An internal office review effectively backed up those findings; Col. James Previtera yanked the jail security clearances of an Armor administrator and his assistant. And the sheriff established a new training requirement for jail employees to help them better spot the symptoms of a stroke.
Bradenton Herald — Manatee children, advocates win big with return of dedicated funds
How sweet it is. That famous catchphrase applies under these circumstances:
Manatee County’s children’s advocates must still be smiling today after this week’s news that an additional $800,000 will be available for youth programs this coming fiscal year.
Thanks to a Florida appeals court ruling in June, the state can no longer overcharge counties for juvenile detention costs. The state Department of Juvenile Justice was forced to recalculate billings, and Manatee’s monthly cost plunges from roughly $118,000 to $44,000.
Years ago, Manatee County commissioners decided to spend funds from the Children’s Services Dedicated Millage to pay for those juvenile detention costs — basically robbing a voter-approved tax that had been pledged for programs that serve neglected, abused, disadvantaged and at-risk children from birth through age 17.
Now commissioners will have a far easier time of recommitting all of that dedicated tax back into its intended purpose as officials hoped to accomplish over the next few years. Commissioner Michael Gallen led that effort, saying he was “thrilled” the new billing amount plummeted.
These are just a few of the organizations that stand to benefit from this windfall: Boys & Girls Clubs of Manatee County, Palmetto Youth Center, Just for Girls, United Community Centers, Foundation for Dreams, Big Brothers and Big Sisters.
But the real winners are Manatee County’s children, more of whom will benefit from the numerous safety-net programs that the dedicated tax funds. Cheers to that.
Daytona Beach News-Journal — Jackson’s leadership helps B-CU move into the future
Bethune-Cookman University’s new president, Edison Jackson, is off to a strong start.
Jackson and B-CU officials have unsheathed a number of changes in the three months since Jackson took the office after serving as interim executive. Coming soon are some changes that should alter the campus in ways that will make it more competitive, with higher academic standards, better student technology and living quarters, and more career-training options.
Bethune-Cookman is one of Daytona Beach’s longtime assets. Mary McLeod Bethune founded the predominantly black university in 1904. One hundred and nine years later, the university is poised for new growth under the energetic, ambitious leadership of Jackson.
Last fall’s enrollment was 3,400 students. Bethune-Cookman officials believe that number could increase to 3,700 this fall. All this will happen as B-CU raises admission requirements, which should mean the students coming in have performed better in high school.
A change on the basic menu of the university is also part of B-CU’s 21st century vision. Bethune-Cookman officials are preparing new master’s degrees in psychology and criminal-justice administration. A master’s degree in public health and a bachelor’s degree in sports medicine are planned to begin in 2014, and a master’s degree in nursing could begin training in 2015.
This is good for the community, even though there is no guarantee that B-CU’s educated graduates will stay and work in Volusia County. But B-CU is also working on that front — the front to improve Daytona Beach.
The Lakeland Ledger — Lakeland Police Incompetence: Officer For The Defense
For a chief in charge during a deluge of Lakeland Police Department scandals that started shortly after New Year’s, Lisa Womack continues to garner her share of goodwill.
Residents who support her often cite the eight years during which sexual acts by 10 on-duty police officers took place. They say Womack’s March 2011 hiring means that the bulk of the blame should go to her predecessor, Roger Boatner.
Friday, Womack met with State Attorney Jerry Hill. Some of the strongest criticism of Womack and the Lakeland Police Department has come from Hill. It has taken the form of letters outlining problems that affect the State Attorney’s Office.
The meeting “was just to discuss the issues that have been going on — get everybody on the same page,” Womack said on her way out of Hill’s office in Bartow. “It was a very positive meeting.”
However, there was nothing positive about a three-page letter of complaint Hill gave Womack while she was there.
‘POOR INVESTIGATION’
Hill’s letter described Lakeland police handling of a pawn shop robbery and gun theft that was so incompetent that Officer Nicholas Pollice, who had been dispatched to the June 16, 2012, robbery, testified as the lead witness for the defense.
The Miami Herald — At the heart of justice
We will never know what was in George Zimmerman’s heart that rainy night when he shot Trayvon Martin, an unarmed Miami Gardens teenager who had been walking back from a convenience store carrying a bag of Skittles and a can of fruit tea to his father’s home in Sanford.
The state wrapped up its case Friday against the neighborhood watch volunteer who spotted the 17-year-old and called police to report what he considered to be suspicious activity in a gated community that had had a rash of break-ins.
The events that unfolded from that point on were tragic — and most surely preventable. But, under the law, were they admissible as self-defense, as the Zimmerman legal team claims?
As of this writing, the Seminole County jury’s verdict had not been rendered. Whether second-degree murder, manslaughter or an acquittal on self-defense grounds, what’s clear is that this tragedy opened raw emotions about race, politics and the law — and also brought together people of good will from every sector of society.
Even as divided as opinions from Miami to Los Angeles might be about this heartbreaking case, Trayvon’s parents, brother and extended family have exhibited only grace and dignity under the most dire of circumstances, going to pains to stress that racial considerations must not become the issue and to reiterate that justice would be served whatever the outcome because Trayvon’s death did not go unnoticed.
This case — thanks to Trayvon’s parents’ persistence in drawing attention to the circumstances that delayed Zimmerman’s arrest for weeks — has jolted our national conscience and garnered worldwide attention to Florida’s lackadaisical Stand Your Ground law, which initially factored into Sanford police officials’ resistance to press charges until a groundswell of public backlash forced the governor to appoint an independent investigator to weigh the facts.
The Orlando Sentinel — George Zimmerman jury reached right verdict
Like it or not, the jury got this one right.
Nobody wants to see two parents who already lost their teenage son also lose out on what they saw as justice.
As painful as it may be, though, acquitting George Zimmerman was the only verdict the jury could logically reach.
The state simply didn’t prove second-degree murder. Or manslaughter.
As much as I don’t like many of the choices Zimmerman made the night he killed Trayvon, the evidence presented at trial gave way to more than one reasonable doubt about Zimmerman’s guilt.
The jury believed Zimmerman’s claim of self-defense.
A lot of people didn’t see it that way.
They saw Zimmerman as the man who should be held accountable for tipping the first in a series of dominoes that led to 17-year-old Trayvon’s death early last year.
Zimmerman made the wrong assumptions about Trayvon Martin, but he didn’t break any laws by calling police to report Trayvon as suspicious.
He didn’t use good judgment, but he didn’t violate any laws by following Trayvon, either.
And you can say Zimmerman didn’t need to stick a gun in his waistband when he decided to get in his truck and drive to Target that night, but he had a legal permit for a concealed firearm.
The state couldn’t prove that Zimmerman started the fight between him and Trayvon.
But without a doubt it was Zimmerman who was losing. His nose was bloodied and broken. His head was cut and bruised.
Trayvon had barely a scratch, until the gunshot that killed him.
Some might have seen manslaughter as a compromise verdict.
But a manslaughter conviction would have been no compromise for George Zimmerman.
It’s hard to imagine that, with a 29-year-old man’s life hanging in the balance, the jury of six women could reach a verdict rooted in conciliation instead of the facts.
Verdicts aren’t meant to placate.
We must accept that this jury reached a not-guilty verdict because jurors believed Zimmerman was in fear of his own life when he shot Trayvon.
Self-defense laws — “stand your ground” aside — are strong in Florida, where concealed-weapons permits nearly outnumber palm trees.
The Tampa Tribune — Don’t kill Florida’s pill database
The state needs all the help it can get in battling prescription drug abuse. Controlled substances contribute to thousands of deaths in Florida each year.
Yet a promising tool the state employs to combat the epidemic – the Prescription Drug Monitoring Program – continues to be criticized as an invasion of privacy that should be abolished or regulated into impotence.
That would be a mistake. Although the program has yet to fulfill its promise, it has great potential to reduce prescription drug abuse and root out fraud at minimal cost.
Under the program, pharmacies and other dispensers of controlled substances are required to report the names of the patients receiving the drugs, the drug type and quantity and the prescribing physician into a database that can be accessed by doctors and law enforcement. Doctors can check to see whether someone seeking a controlled substance is getting the same drugs from other doctors. Law enforcement can check for fraud when investigating complaints.
In fact, a successful use of the database by law enforcement is what unleashed the latest criticism. While investigating a fraud complaint, drug agents obtained a list of 3,300 patients seen by four doctors. The investigation resulted in several arrests.
Although most of the 3,300 patients had nothing to do with the fraud, the entire list was given to defense attorneys as part of the legal process.
Despite warnings that the list is not a public record, one of the attorneys notified a fellow attorney who was among the patients on the list. That attorney sued, claiming the state should not have released the records of patients who had nothing to do with the fraud.
The American Civil Liberties Union is asking for a federal investigation.
Whether the state should have released the names of every patient on the list is a legitimate question. And the outcry has led to a review by the state Department of Health into the security of the database. The agency is considering tighter controls on access.
The tweaks should make for a more secure handling of the records. Considering the database has been operational for less than two years, it is far too early to consider this one breach to be a fatal flaw. Keep in mind that the attorney was wrong to ignore the confidentiality warnings and alert the other attorney.
Forty-one other states have similar databases up and running, according to the state’s Department of Health. Some states allow law enforcement to access the database directly, while others require some level of judicial review before granting access.
In Florida, law enforcement must file a report as part of an active investigation before the state grants access.
That seems reasonable, but we’ll wait for the conclusion of the Department of Health’s review before passing judgment on access, or whether the state should redact the names of innocent patients before releasing confidential lists to attorneys involved in court cases.
The Palm Beach Post — Medicare’s ‘observation status’ is unfair to seniors
Medicare’s hospital reimbursement policies are hurting patients. Congress and the Obama administration should make the regulatory changes necessary to ensure beneficiaries get the care need.
Thousands of seniors are being denied care in skilled nursing homes and rehabilitation hospitals because the hospitals where they initially sought treatment refused to admit them, instead putting them on “observation status.” Medicare will cover such care only for patients admitted to a hospital for at least three consecutive days prior to seeking services.
