He says he was abused at the same Miami-Dade juvenile center where another boy died of a burst appendix.
By Associated Press
Published April 22, 2004
MIAMI - A 16-year-old boy said guards beat and choked him last week at a juvenile detention center where another boy died of a burst appendix last summer.
Child welfare workers are investigating the allegation by Jerry Byron, who suffered a concussion April 14 while at the Miami-Dade Regional Juvenile Detention Center, operated by the state Department of Juvenile Justice.
Byron reported the incident to the Department of Children and Families' abuse hotline on Friday.
The 226-bed lockup is where 17-year-old Omar Paisley died last year of a ruptured appendix that went untreated. The death sparked a grand jury investigation, two indictments, legislative hearings, numerous firings, an overhaul of Juvenile Justice and promises to treat all detainees humanely.
Byron, who is awaiting trial on a charge of selling cocaine, said one officer slammed him against a wall and a second officer choked him. He said he was also punched in the face.
"I don't know what happened," he said. "I was dizzy, and then I was gone. I fell down."
Byron said he woke up at Jackson Memorial Hospital. He says his eye is still blurry and painful, and he has headaches.
He was diagnosed as having a concussion but was returned to the lockup that night, according to the DCF hotline report.
Byron's mother, Venia Val, said she wasn't told about her son's injury until Tuesday, when juvenile justice officials called her to pick him up from the center.
"They didn't call me when he went to the hospital," Val said. "They never called me to tell me my son was sick."
Juvenile Justice spokeswoman Catherine Arnold confirmed that DCF is investigating the abuse report. Juvenile Justice will await the results before deciding what to do, she said.
