More wheelchair dumping in Tampa jail. Also a woman who stole a sandwich near death.

madfloridian

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Thu Feb-28-08 12:15 AM
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More wheelchair dumping in Tampa jail. Also a woman who stole a sandwich near death.

She got no medical care even though she had over 101 degree temperature for 5 days. Her crime...she stole a sandwich from Publix Supermarkets.

The jail actually says the man in the wheelchair was a danger to the deputies. Yet the video clearly shows he could have harmed none of them. He was agitated, but he was not a danger.

Here is the wheelchair dumping incident with article and video.

10 News discovers another wheel chair dumping incident at the jail

Tampa, Florida - "That's humiliating to treat him this way."

That's how paraplegic Benjamin Rayburn's mother, Vivian, describes this latest wheel chair dumping at the Orient Road Jail. In this incident from October of 2006, four deputies dumped Rayburn onto the floor. They let him lie there, took away his wheel chair and then did nothing as he tried to get up and fell back to the floor.

Vivian Rayburn says it's heartbreaking. She says she is outraged.
Hillsborough Chief Deputy Joe Docobo says in this particular case the circumstances that resulted in this gentleman being taken to the ground were absolutely warranted by the deputies.

Docobo, who was contrite after we discovered the first wheel chair dumping incident with Brian Sterner, said at the time it was an aberration and not the way they did business.

Docobo is in the video. He also says this.

Docobo says this is a case where the deputies deliberately took him to the ground for just cause; he presented an immediate danger to the deputy.

The video shows otherwise.

Now for the waitress who stole a sandwich. She was jailed. She was ill and did not get treatment. Nine days later she was sent by ambulance to the hospital. Boyfriend on the news tonight said her fever was over 101 for 5 days.

Mother, Boyfriend Blame Woman's Life-Threatening Staph Infection On Jail Stay

ST. PETERSBURG The day before Valentine's Day, Dorothy Palinchik, a 42-year-old down-on-her-luck waitress, was booked into the Pinellas County Jail on charges she had stolen a $9.20 Philly steak sandwich from a Publix supermarket.

Nine days later, she left in an ambulance.

Now, Palinchik is in an induced coma at Largo Medical Center, suffering from a combination of pneumonia and a type of staph infection that is resistant to antibiotics, family members said.

Palinchik's family and boyfriend think she got sick at the jail and that the staff there is responsible for her condition.

"They didn't give her proper medical care," said her mother, whose name is also Dorothy Palinchik. "I just don't think they wanted to deal with it."

Here is a post about the first wheelchair dumping.

Deputy who dumped man from wheelchair booked into jail.

Of course the deputy was out within hours on low bail.

Here is a video of the first wheelchair dumping.

Video of man dumped from wheelchair.

Here are two more instances of abuse and beating in addition to those above, recently.

Inmate abuse claims spill out in Tampa. Two more charges of mistreatment.

TAMPA - It's in the black and white of the X-ray, an arm bone cracked just above the elbow.

Charlana Irving, a 28-year-old exotic dancer and waiter, says she suffered that broken bone at the hands of a detention deputy at the Orient Road Jail.

Irving, who has notified the Hillsborough Sheriff's Office of plans to sue, says that Detention Deputy Milton Fassett, 55, broke her arm inside a holding cell in the jail's booking area, where she was being held May 9 on charges of drunken driving and resisting an officer without violence. Hers is the third allegation in 10 days against detention deputies at the jail, a facility that booked 72,000 people last year.

And the other with a sickening video.

http://www.sptimes.com/2008/02/20/Hillsborough/Sheriff_backs_2nd_dep.shtml">An alleged beating, caught on videotape, isn't like the wheelchair dumping, officials contend.

When a second video surfaced, this time showing a detention deputy hitting a woman, the reaction was markedly different.

"I think it was just not put in the proper context," said Sheriff David Gee. "You have to read the deputy's report. It's easy to make judgments. We can all do that. The TV stations, they threw it out there without any context."

Marcella Pourmoghani, 40, filed a federal lawsuit Friday against the sheriff and county, claiming a deputy caused her brain injuries by hitting her. The woman's attorney, Virlyn B. Moore III of Venice, has said the two videos show a systemic problem with the Hillsborough County jails, an accusation that Gee disputed.

Pourmoghani "was acting up," Gee said.

The video does not show "acting up" enough to be beaten like that.

Tampa jails have serious problems, and I am glad the news stations are staying on it.