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Schools

Law firm plans suit in cuffing of girl, 5

The lawyers sent letters to school, county, city and police officials in Pinellas County, saying the kindergartener has been traumatized.

By MELANIE AVE
Published May 5, 2005

ST. PETERSBURG - Lawyers for the 5-year-old girl handcuffed by police March 14 at Fairmount Park Elementary School after she misbehaved put local government officials on notice this week of their plans to sue.

In a May 2 letter, lawyers say excessive force was used in restraining a kindergartener, violating her constitutional rights. They are seeking an undetermined amount of damages, including attorney fees.

"We are, at this time, extending to you an invitation to meet with us for the purpose of serious settlement discussions before we begin this costly, burdensome and time consuming course of pre-suit and litigation," wrote attorneys Tricia Hoffler and Willie Gary.

Gary leads the Stuart firm of Gary, Williams, Parenti, Finney, Lewis, McManus, Watson & Sperando. Gary's nickname is "the Giant Killer" because of the large judgments his firm has won against corporations like Anheuser-Busch and Disney.

The letter was sent to city, county, police and school officials, including Mayor Rick Baker, City Council Chairman Richard Kriseman, Pinellas County Commission Chairman John Morroni, Police Chief Chuck Harmon and Pinellas superintendent Clayton Wilcox.

School, city and police officials declined to comment Wednesday citing pending litigation.

It was unclear why the letter was sent to Pinellas County officials, who were not specifically named in the attorneys' outline of the claim. County Administrator Steve Spratt said County Attorney Susan Churuti mentioned the letter to him Wednesday.

"She doesn't think we are an appropriate party in the matter," Spratt said.

Lawyers for the girl say St. Petersburg police did not have proper procedures in place on using excessive force on schoolchildren and the department failed to properly train its officers.

The lawyers want the city to provide more supervision of officers and training in restraining children, better hiring of minority officers, revised procedures for disciplining children and the creation of a community police review board. The lawyers also said the school district did not have proper procedures for dealing with a child who has behavioral problems. They want more supervision of school officials, better discipline policies, improved training of school officials when dealing with children with behavioral problems and increased use of school resource officers.

The girl "has been extremely traumatized as a result of the subject incident and continues to suffer emotional distress because of this incident," the attorneys wrote.

The girl's mother, Inga Akins, hired the Stuart firm after firing Largo lawyer John Trevena when he released a videotape of the girl's handcuffing by three police officers to the St. Petersburg Times. The videotape has been aired worldwide. Officials from the tabloid TV show A Current Affair said they had an exclusive deal with Akins.

[Last modified May 5, 2005, 01:26:13]