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After the February acquittal of three guards, the state drops its case against five other guards.
By THOMAS C. TOBIN
© St. Petersburg Times, published May 11, 2002
GAINESVILLE -- After three years and two trials, the state's effort to prosecute the prison guards responsible for the stomping death of inmate Frank Valdes has collapsed.
Bill Cervone, the state attorney in Gainesville, announced Friday that all charges would be dropped against five former guards at Florida State Prison who would have stood trial in the fall. The charges included second-degree murder, conspiracy to commit aggravated battery and official misconduct in the July 1999 death of Valdes.
The decision follows the February acquittal of three other guards who stood trial on the same set of charges and were considered by prosecutors as the ones most likely to have delivered the fatal beating in a prison where only guards had access to inmates.
In that trial, defense attorneys conceded for the first time that Valdes was stomped to death by a prison guard, but they told jurors it was not one of three on trial at the time. Abandoned was the officers' previous contention that Valdes killed himself by flinging himself repeatedly off the bars of his isolation cell.
Valdes, 36, had been facing execution for murdering a Palm Beach County prison guard when he was beaten in a part of Florida State Prison called the X Wing. He suffered numerous injuries, including a broken nose, a swollen scrotum, bruises and a crushed chest that brought death by suffocation. There were boot prints on his neck and abdomen.
"In essence we took our best shot with our best evidence against the most culpable defendants and the jury chose not to accept that evidence, instead returning a verdict of not guilty," Cervone said at a news conference.
He also cited the fall 2000 acquittal on battery charges of another guard who had been accused of beating Valdes before his death.
He added that he had "no reasonable expectation of success" in the next trial, largely because the case would have to be tried once again in Bradford County. That's where the crime occurred, but it is also where the Department of Corrections is the biggest employer.
Before the February trial, it took three months to pick a jury that was relatively free of influences from the prison system.
"The reality of the situation is that in Bradford County you are asking people to do something very difficult by asking them to ignore the realities of their lives, their livelihoods, the relationships they have, their friends, their families, people they go to church with," Cervone said. "I take jurors at their word when, under oath, they say they can put that aside. . . . (but) I am concerned that it is an impossible burden in this particular case."
Cervone's office tried to move the trial to another county but Florida law makes it almost impossible for prosecutors to win a change of venue.
The prosecutor's decision to drop the case marks the end of one of the more embarrassing chapters in Florida prison history. Valdes' beating death brought the Department of Corrections intense scrutiny from media, the state Legislature and police, and led DOC secretary Michael Moore to set up a more independent process of reviewing abuse complaints by inmates.
The case is being reviewed by the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Justice Department, but Cervone said that agency has not shared any information on whether it intends to pick up where his office leaves off. Federal prosecutors, he said, would not have to try a case in Bradford County and might have charges at their disposal that would better fit the facts of the case.
The prosecutors put on a case that was largely circumstantial and also relied on testimony from inmates serving life terms. They were hard-pressed to place the guards in Valdes' cell at the time when the evidence showed he died.
The jury took 3 1/2 hours to arrive at a not-guilty verdict on all charges.
Reaction from Valdes' wife, Wanda Valdes of West Palm Beach, was emotional.
"They admit that he was murdered. It was an open admission," she said, referring to the last trial. "This screams for justice, and I will get it if I have to walk barefoot all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court."
Wanda Valdes has a federal civil rights lawsuit pending in Jacksonville, but her attorney, Guy Rubin of Stuart, said it is not likely to go to trial until 2003. The defendants in that case include the eight guards, plus additional guards and state prison officials.
Rubin said he will be lobbying the Justice Department to pursue the matter in federal criminal court. "I hope the U.S. Attorney's Office is going to make this a priority," he said.
On the other side, Donald Stanford, 54, one of the five guards who still faced prosecution, said it was "about time" the charges were dropped. He declined to comment further, saying he was under a doctor's care.
Stephen Dobson, a Tallahassee attorney representing former guard Robert Sauls, said his client was relieved. "He's very pleased, he's happy. He's maintained his innocence and hopefully this is a strong indication of that."
He said Sauls is confident he also would be cleared if federal charges are brought.
Of the five remaining guards, Sauls was charged with the least serious offenses: battery on an inmate and conspiracy to commit battery. But Dobson said the evidence showed he was nowhere near Valdes' cell when the fatal beating occurred.
The other former guards cleared Friday were Dewey Beck, 54; Andrew W. Lewis, 31; and Montrez L. Lucas, 33.
Former guards Timothy A. Thornton, 36, Charles A. Brown, 28, and Jason P. Griffis, 29, were found not guilty in February.
All the guards were fired more than two years ago, and corrections officials have said they will not rehire them, even if they were never convicted.
In a statement, Department of Corrections secretary Moore said Friday that his agency has made many changes as a result of the Valdes case. Among them: reviewing officer's use of force at the state level rather than at each prison; videotaping those actions; and rotating guards to avoid burnout and stress. Cervone said those changes made it easier to accept the idea that the case was no longer viable.
He said the decision to end the prosecution came after weeks of discussion with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.
Wanda Valdes said the acquittals and now the dropping of the charges will give other prison guards license to set upon inmates with impugnity. But Cervone disagreed.
"I think it sends just the opposite message, and I hope that anybody who might even be inclined to think that you can get away with it will realize that you are subject to prosecution."