 |
||||||||
 |
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
Man punched by officer plans to sue St. Pete Beach
By AMY WIMMER, Times Staff Writer ST. PETE BEACH -- Shawn Rodriquez doesn't have a clean police record. He has done cocaine. He has shoplifted. And he has failed again and again to show up in court. Still, he doesn't think what the city of St. Pete Beach did to him is right. He plans to sue, claiming defamation of character and violation of civil rights. "As long as I live on that beach . . . I will never have a job, and I will never be able to live safely," said Rodriquez, who is 28. Three years ago St. Pete Beach police officers arrested Rodriquez on an outstanding warrant. After they placed him in handcuffs, Rodriquez stiffened his legs and, officers say, kicked them as they tried to get him into the back of a police cruiser. Officer Russell Nuzzo punched Rodriquez twice, according to a Police Department internal affairs report. Nuzzo, who was investigated five times for using excessive force during his career with the Police Department, was suspended for 20 days without pay for beating Rodriquez. Three months later, Nuzzo was fired in an unrelated incident. Rodriquez said he was ready to put his experience with St. Pete Beach police behind him when he got out of prison. In February he got a job at Philthy Phil's Waterfront Bar & Grill, 678 75th Ave. in St. Pete Beach. Two weeks into the new job, he saw Officer Ron Bittaker, Nuzzo's partner the night of the beating, talking to Phil's owner Belinda Albert. By the end of the week, Rodriquez was fired, and he suspects Bittaker told Albert to get rid of Rodriquez because he was a troublemaker. Albert said Bittaker told her to be "cautious" of her new employee but did not urge her to fire him. She says she decided to do that on her own. Rodriquez says he didn't plan to sue St. Pete Beach for the excessive force in 1999 -- until, he says, Bittaker made it difficult to rebuild his life in St. Pete Beach. "If it weren't for that, this client would have never called me," said John Trevena, Rodriquez's lawyer. Trevena sent St. Pete Beach a letter last week, as required by Florida law, advising the city that Rodriquez plans to sue in six months. Trevena admits his decision to represent Rodriquez is a bit unconventional: A sterling reputation is easier to defend. In just the past three years, Rodriquez has had 12 dealings with the St. Pete Beach Police Department, either as a suspect, witness or victim of a crime. But Trevena says law enforcement shouldn't be able to push around local people just because they have a criminal record. He said he became particularly interested in the issue after learning of what he considers an injustice at the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office: While Sheriff Everett Rice offered $50,000 to a woman with a clean criminal record who was arrested on a case of mistaken identity and spent 17 hours in jail, a woman with a criminal past wrongly spent 81 days in jail and was offered $8,100. "I think it's time that law enforcement agencies stop ducking their responsibility and their liability by victimizing the victim of police misconduct," said Trevena. "I want to use this as a test case to demonstrate that I believe a jury will ultimately find that conduct reprehensible." St. Pete Beach police Chief Ray Kaminskas said he would not comment on litigation, and City Attorney Jim Devito said he has not yet seen the legal letter.
 © 2006 • All Rights Reserved • St. Petersburg Times
490 First Avenue South • St. Petersburg, FL 33701 • 727-893-8111 
|
From the Times South Pinellas desks |
