A lawyer says she and her client have concerns that security was insufficient at A.J. Ferrell Middle School.
By SHANNON COLAVECCHIO-VAN SICKLER
Published May 7, 2004
TAMPA - Two days after police charged a convicted sexual offender with the murder of a school custodian at A.J. Ferrell Middle School, the victim's husband has hired a lawyer and notified the Hillsborough County School District that he will pursue legal action.
School district spokesman Mark Hart confirmed Thursday that the district received a letter from Tampa attorney Irene Rodriguez on behalf of Onoria Suarez Ramos' husband, Jose Angel Ramos.
Hart said the letter did not specify the grounds for the suit.
"We believe this is a workers' compensation matter," Hart said. "This case is not grounds for a civil suit."
Onoria Ramos was killed April 23 in the campus building near the track, which is open to the public. On Tuesday, 36-year-old Freddie Lee Clemons Jr. was arrested and charged with first-degree murder in the fatal attack on Ramos.
Clemons was released from prison in February after serving 18 years of a 25-year sentence for sexually battering two older women.
Rodriguez said she and her client have concerns that security was insufficient on the Ferrell campus where Ramos, 54, had just days earlier begun working.
"There were open breezeways to the public," Rodriguez said. "You have female custodians who worked after hours."
Police spokesman Capt. Bob Guidara confirmed Thursday that the door to the building where Ramos was murdered, and the door to the classroom where her body was found, were ajar when police arrived the evening of April 23. The automatic locking mechanisms on the doors were in place, so it's unclear who opened the doors, Guidara said. There was no sign of forced entry.
Hart said Ramos was told at least three times that she must close the door behind her when working inside the school.
The track remains open to the public through a gate off 22nd Street, but Hart said a new fence between the gym and main building limits access to the courtyard.
Still, Hart learned Thursday that Jose Ramos' suit might not be the only one the district faces.
Onoria Ramos' niece, Silemy Suarez, held a news conference in the afternoon to announce that Ramos' daughter, who lives in Cuba with her three children, has retained the services of her own lawyer: Edgar J. Guzman of Tampa.
Jose Ramos is not Alicia Suarez's biological father. But Alicia Suarez, 37, has depended upon her mother's salary ever since her mother left Cuba for the United States 16 years ago, Silemy Suarez said. Every month Onoria Ramos sent her daughter and grandchildren between $100 and $300.
"They are beneficiaries in any potential case that may result," said Guzman's law firm partner, Harold L. "Tripp" Sebring III. "The income she made at the school was used primarily, if not entirely, to support them. And now she's dead."
Sebring stressed the firm is proceeding cautiously, and has not yet determined whether Ramos's daughter has a valid claim against the district.
