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CHRIS TISCHAfter a string of arrests involving staffers, Florida Youth Academy's state contract is terminated.
LARGO - The state has severed ties with the Florida Youth Academy after the arrests of several employees, including one recently accused of giving cocaine to a teenager at the facility.
Those incidents prompted the Department of Juvenile Justice early this month to cancel its $1.5-million contract with the academy.
The state has hired another company to run the facility near the Largo Mall and will put its contracts out for bid, department spokeswoman Catherine Arnold said Thursday.
"Their overall performance ... was just not up to par," she said. "The instances never should have occurred."
The state hired the academy in 1999 to care for about 130 youths, primarily girls who had committed serious crimes. They stay at the facility from three to 18 months.
But over the past four years, five employees have been arrested on charges that they harmed children at the facility.
Nainan Desai, the academy's chief financial officer, was out of the office Thursday and could not be reached.
The most recent incident at the academy occurred in February when allegations surfaced that an employee, Nelson Roman, 31, gave a 17-year-old female resident cocaine. Roman worked in maintenance at the academy but also was trained to oversee youth and at times was asked to help care for the residents, Largo police said.
The girl, who was at the facility because of previous drug offenses, took the cocaine back to her quarters and shared it with her roommate, a novice to the drug, police said. The roommate, who is about 16, became ill, Largo police Officer Timothy Vaughan said.
She was taken to Bayfront Medical Center, where tests found she had used cocaine. The 17-year-old told other residents that Roman brought her the cocaine. At least one resident reported it to a staff member and an investigation ensued.
The hospitalized girl was released the next day.
Her roommate told police Roman had developed a "big brother relationship" with her and had promised her a surprise for several days - which turned out to be cocaine, according to arrest reports. Three days later, Roman admitted to police that he brought the cocaine to the facility for the girl, reports state. The facility fired Roman, who Vaughan said is married with two children, the next day.
Vaughan submitted his evidence to the State Attorney's Office for review.
A warrant for Roman's arrest was issued in May. He was arrested Saturday and held at the jail on $5,000 bail until a judge released him on his own recognizance Monday. His public defender has submitted a not guilty plea on his behalf.
Records show Roman has a criminal record in New York, where he was arrested in 1992 for selling drugs. He was sentenced to five years probation.
Arnold said all employees who worked for organizations with contracts with the Department of Juvenile Justice must submit to a background check that is supposed to uncover previous arrests. However, she said Roman's previous drug arrest may not have automatically disqualified him from employment at the Florida Youth Academy.
Roman's arrest was not the first incident at the facility.
Last March, Largo police received a complaint from the grandmother of a 16-year-old girl who said the teen was bruised and beaten while at the facility. The investigation resulted in the arrests of three counselors, all of whom were fired.
Police found the child had been the subject of a take-down March 6, 2003, after she would not stop talking after lights were supposed to be out.
Police said counselors Dequicertis Collins, 31, and Betherea Stokes, 37, took the girl to a timeout room, which was out of range of the facility's 72 surveillance cameras.
Collins and Stokes then began a "beat out" in which they punched the girl in the arms, legs and torso, arrest reports state. The girl told police a "beat out" was a rite of passage for those who are about to be released from the facility.
Stokes, 37, was arrested in March 2003 on a child abuse charge. He pleaded guilty to the charge in August and was sentenced to three years of probation. Officials sought for almost a year before he was arrested in April on a child abuse charge. He pleaded not guilty and awaits trial.
Another staffer, Andy M. Lewis, 27, was charged with child neglect because, police say, he saw the abuse and did nothing to stop it. Lewis has pleaded not guilty to the charge and is awaiting trial.
Both Collins and Stokes have arrest histories, though that did not disqualify them from employment at the academy.
In December 2000, Largo police also arrested a program technician, Freddie Crayton, on charges he had sex with two teens at the facility.
A jury later convicted Crayton of felony charges of sexual activity and sexual misconduct with teens in his custodial care.
He was sentenced to five years in prison to be followed by 10 years of probation.
Arnold said the incidents were the result of an environment that was not up to state standards. She said the state agency tried to give the academy a chance to improve.
"When actions are not taken to the level that we deem appropriate for our programs... we have to move forward to stronger actions," she said.