Mother of arrested 8-year-old boy sues Florida

Florida, United States

Bianca Digennaro He denounced this Tuesday through tears that in the middle of a “mental collapse” his son was arrested at the age of 8 in a school in the Keys of Florida and put like a criminal in jail, with handcuffs, a photo for the medical record and DNA samples from his mouth, and announced the filing of a federal lawsuit against the authorities of Key West.

Digennaro went today to a videoconference Press together with a group of lawyers, led by Ben Crump, to announce a civil rights lawsuit for the “severe psychological injury” caused to the child by the school, police and judicial authorities of Key West.

They pointed out that the “traumatic” experience of the arrest, incarceration, and filing of a criminal charge against the student occurred in December 2018.

Digennaro He said that “it is never easy” to see the video that came to light this week, where the minor is sitting, very calm, and the police arrive to arrest him, with the difficulty of putting the handcuffs on him because they are too big.

“I am sad because I was not there to protect my son,” said the woman in shock, who could not come that day because she was undergoing an operation to remove a tumor.

Digennaro said that since then he has fought a nine-month battle to have his son’s assault charges dropped, for which he had to hire a criminal lawyer and pay for expensive medical exams.

“My son has a disability and the authorities tried to turn him into a criminal at 8 years old, “lamented Diegennaro, of Italian and German origin.

According to the applicant, her son, now 10 years old, suffers from Attention deficit/Hyperactivity (ADHD), with episodes of “depression and anxiety”, of which the lawyers said that the school authorities were well aware.

She specified that sometimes her son has “tantrums” and refuses to be touched, even by herself.

He boy, whose name has not been given because he is a minor, was arrested after a teacher called the police because he allegedly attacked her when she tried to move him to where she wanted because he did not obey her orders.

The mother said the lawsuit is to prevent other parents with children with disabilities from facing a similar problem.

He specified that his son, by then 1.07 meters tall and 29 kilograms in weight, spent minutes in jail, but for him it was like hours.

SYSTEM FAILING PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES

Crump explained that this “outrageous, shocking and unconstitutional” event occurred during a “mental crisis” of the minor, who was medicated, and the lawsuit will focus on the “violation” of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).

“The handcuffs didn’t even work for him. You can imagine what they had on their mind, what (the child) must have thought,” Crump lamented, adding that the “worst” came later with the filing of criminal charges.

The lawyer, who said the boy’s father is black, is known for representing several cases of African-Americans subjected to police discrimination or abuse, such as George Floyd, who died last May at the hands of a white policeman in Minnesota and who sparked a wave of national protests.

Crump said that the case of this child shows the lack of “humanity, decency and compassion” of the authorities and shows the failures of a “complete system” that tries to validate these behaviors.

He stressed that the message they want to send with this lawsuit is the need to “change the culture of the Police and prosecutors.”

Attorneys, including Devon M. Jacob of Jacob Litigation, criticized the “ridiculousness” of a District Attorney’s Office pressing charges against a sick 8-year-old child.

Jacob said that as a policeman he went before he became a lawyer he regrets that the Key West police chief said they “did nothing wrong.”

“That way, they admitted that it was the usual thing. That’s the problem, that’s why we filed this lawsuit,” Jacob emphasized.

He criticized that during the arrest at the school there were school personnel, supervisors and police officers and that none of these adults did anything to protect a minor with a disability.

He pointed out that the lawsuit will expose the “psychological damage” suffered by this ill minor who asked about his father, because he knew that his mother was hospitalized.

The boy was “zero threat” to all the adults around him, he stressed.

“Where is decency, humanity? He’s someone’s son,” Jacob wondered. EFE

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