Two boys fought at a juvenile detention center and one died. Prosecutors say the teenagers were equally responsible.
By CURTIS KRUEGER
Published August 7, 2003
LARGO - A 16-year-old youth will not be charged with a crime for his role in a deadly fight at the Pinellas Juvenile Detention Center, prosecutors have decided.
In the brief fight two months ago inside the detention center, Louis Lauro hit 17-year-old Danny Matthews a couple of times after a day of trash-talking. Matthews fell to the floor and was pronounced dead at a hospital shortly afterward.
The Pinellas County Sheriff's Office had recommended charging Lauro with manslaughter. The Pinellas-Pasco State Attorney's Office disagreed this week and chose not to file charges because the two youths essentially had agreed to fight.
"They both had expressed a desire to fight each other, and it evolved into a mutual combat situation," Chief Assistant State Attorney Bruce Bartlett said. "One party was no more responsible than the other party."
Bartlett said testimony from other inmates showed the two teenagers had clashed in some sort of altercation earlier and had threatened each other repeatedly on May 31, the day of the fight. He said there was "a plan by both parties to kind of determine who was the tougher of the two."
Also, the Pinellas-Pasco Medical Examiner's Office said Wednesday it had been unable to determine whether Matthews had died because of a punch to the head or from hitting his head on something as he fell. The cause of death was blunt trauma to the head.
Matthews' father, Robert, said he felt "devastation" after hearing the news that no charges would be filed. "I couldn't believe it."
Robert Matthews said he is most frustrated at the Department of Juvenile Justice workers who were supervising the youths in the detention center. "I said right from the start, I blame the people more that were supposed to watch them than I blame that kid," he said.
But deciding not to charge Lauro with any crime didn't seem right to him either. "You've still got be held accountable for what you did," Matthews said.
Melba Zirkle, who is Lauro's grandmother, said she felt relieved. But she added: "There is no win in this incident here. There was no win on either part of this. It's a tragedy, and I'm sorry it happened. But I'm glad my grandson is getting some mental relief."
She said the incident "has bothered my grandson the whole time. It's a hard thing, I'm glad it's over for him. I'm again, sorry for the parents of Danny and his family."
Matthews was in the JDC on a charge of domestic aggravated battery. His mother said he had pushed her across the table and bruised her arm, and she had pressed charges hoping he would get mental health and drug treatment. Lauro was facing violation of probation on charges of battery, disorderly conduct and criminal mischief. Lauro is now housed in a different juvenile facility, Zirkle said.
The detention center is a 120-person jail in the Largo area used primarily for inmates younger than 18 facing juvenile charges. Most stay 21 days or less. The facility, near the county criminal justice complex on 49th Street, is operated by the state Department of Juvenile Justice.
DJJ spokeswoman Catherine Arnold would not comment about whether having inmates engaged in "mutual combat" showed that youths were not properly supervised. A separate investigation into detention workers' conduct is under way by the DJJ inspector general's office.
In particular, investigators are expected to look into how the two youths got out of their cells to begin the fight. Some witnesses have said another inmate asked a detention worker to open the cell doors, which allowed the two to clash.
Cathy Corry, a Clearwater activist who runs the Web site www.justice4kids.org said "someone in the Department of Juvenile Justice should be held accountable for what appears to be negligence on their part in opening those doors when they knew that those two youths were having verbal altercations."
Although a video camera was running in the detention center at the time of the fight, it did not provide a clear image of what happened, Bartlett said.
Asked whether sheriff's officials were disappointed in the state attorney's decision, Detective Tim Goodman said "any time you do an investigation, and especially if there's a death investigation, I'm sure there's some disappointment."
