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Man wants to know if wife's death is on tape

By SHANNON COLAVECCHIO-VAN SICLER
Published September 29, 2005

The Amscot Financial outlet next door to the carwash in Town 'N Country where a 43-year-old woman was run over earlier this year has surveillance cameras.

Those cameras were operating the afternoon an Isuzu SUV slammed into Brenda Lee Brown, killing her. Now, the Tampa attorney representing Brown's widower wants to see the tapes.

Attorney Tammy Judge of the Yerrid Law Firm recently filed a petition to get the Amscot surveillance tapes from May 6.

"There's so many videocameras out there, we're just trying to see what they saw," Judge said.

Hillsborough sheriff's investigators decided in July not to file charges against Densil Blake, the 50-year-old Town & Country Car Wash attendant who was washing the Isuzu SUV just before it hit Brown.

Blake was wiping down the Isuzu when it slipped out of neutral and rolled toward Brown and her toddler. Investigators said Blake slammed his size 18 shoes on what he thought was the Isuzu's brake, but Blake's foot hit the gas instead.

The Isuzu surged forward in the parking lot at 8211 W Hillsborough Ave. and hit Brown.

Investigators concluded the incident was "something tragic" and accidental, not criminal.

But that doesn't preclude McNeil Brown from filing a wrongful death suit in civil court.

Judge states in her petition that she called Amscot "several" times to ask for copies of "all tapes which might have recorded relevant video footage," but never heard back from company representatives.

"Time is of the essence because evidence may become lost and/or destroyed," Judge wrote in the petition.

Judge later told the Times: "We are looking to file suit soon."

ISSUES THREATEN DEADLINE: Hillsborough County Sheriff David Gee recently expressed hope that the first-ever contract between his department and the union representing hundreds of deputies would be ready by Oct. 1, when the 2005-06 budget year begins.

But Oct. 1 is two days away, and union and sheriff's leaders still can't agree on a major issue: wages and compensation for deputies, detectives and corporals, who are part of the collective bargaining unit.

"At this point," Chief Deputy Jose Docobo said, "we're just waiting for another meeting."

County commissioners already approved Gee's more than $300-million annual budget, so the issue is how much of that will go toward deputies' salaries.

The union wants an 11-step pay system in which deputies get a salary hike each year, reaching the maximum in 11 years, Docobo said. The sheriff's office proposes a plan that includes annual salary adjustments plus yearly adjustments based on market equity.

"I had to submit my budget to (county administrator) Pat Bean fairly early," Gee told the Times in a recent interview. "And once you're locked into that two-year budget, there's not much wiggle room."

JUDGE HELPING CLEANUP: Hillsborough Circuit Judge Anthony Black is no stranger to vigorous activity.

A veteran of eight marathons including the prestigious Boston Marathon, Black can be found most mornings running along Bayshore Boulevard.

A week from Sunday, Black, 48, will trade in his waterfront exercise for a less scenic but more charitable workout.

He and more than two dozen other men from the congregation of Davis Islands Baptist Church leave Oct. 9 for a weeklong stay in Biloxi and Gulfport, Miss., where they will clear away debris and fallen trees left in Hurricane Katrina's wake.

"I just felt like it was something I wanted to do," Black said Wednesday. "We heard stories of people being quoted like $6,000 dollars for a $600 job. Maybe we can go up there and help out."

"We'll go with our chain saws and start cutting."

--Contact Shannon Colavecchio-Van Sickler at 813 226-3373 or svansickler@sptimes.com

[Last modified September 29, 2005, 01:18:09]