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Matt Leary, 32, is charged with evidence tampering and failure to report an abuse allegation. He had resigned May 3.
By JIM ROSS
© St. Petersburg Times, published May 23, 2001
LECANTO -- Authorities arrested the Brown Schools' former Lecanto director Tuesday and charged him with evidence tampering and failure to report a child abuse allegation.
Matt Leary, 32, posted $2,500 bail and was released from the Citrus County jail pending arraignment.
The arrest stands as the worst news yet for Brown, which has encountered -- critics would say caused -- constant trouble during its brief Citrus tenure. Brown has faced community outrage, legal challenges, several escapes, ongoing problems inside the facility and a barrage of negative reports from its state regulator.
Now this.
"We are very surprised" by prosecutors' decision to file charges, Brown spokeswoman Donna Burtanger said. She said the accusations were "completely inconsistent with our internal review."
Leary resigned from Brown effective May 3, but he had left his Lecanto post weeks earlier. Burtanger said the company, which provided his bail money, continues to support him.
Leary will plead not guilty, according to his lawyer, Charles Vaughn.
"I have reviewed the information that I have been provided through an independent investigation and it appears that the charges are unfounded," Vaughn said.
Brown operates a residential treatment facility for emotionally disturbed adolescents ages 12 to 17. The Department of Children and Families hired Brown to run the program, which is housed in the former Heritage Hospital building.
Law officers have visited almost 200 times in less than a year, responding to allegations of child abuse or neglect. The company has paid more than $7,000 in fines because of repeated false fire alarms. There have been four escapes, two of which led to alleged criminal activity.
The charges against Leary stem from a February incident at Brown, according to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. On Feb. 4, a 12-year-old boy told Brown staffers another resident had sexually assaulted him, according to Richard Pyles, special agent supervisor for FDLE.
Two staffers interviewed the boy and wrote a report four days later. Burtanger, the Brown spokeswoman, said some sort of mixup led to the delay.
In any event, the crucial incident happened the next day, Feb. 9, when Leary and another staffer took their own statement from the reported victim, FDLE said. During that statement, the boy did not mention a sexual assault.
Leary, based on his knowledge of the reported victim, did not report anything to the state's child abuse hot line or law enforcement. The boys appeared to have engaged in horseplay. Leary did not pass along a copy of the original report to any agency.
"These are boys that have a history of these kinds of reports," Burtanger said. "He (Leary) felt that this was in keeping with the boy's normal pattern of allegations."
A former Brown employee took a copy of the original report and took it outside the building. It eventually wound up with FDLE, Burtanger said.
Was the reported victim actually sexually assaulted? "That's continuing to be worked," said Pyles, the FDLE agent.
FDLE forwarded its information to the State Attorney's Office, where prosecutors reviewed it and decided to bring charges.
Because he was in a care-giving position at the time, Leary was considered a person legally obligated to report known or suspected child abuse. Failure for such a person to report a child abuse allegation is a first-degree misdemeanor, punishable by up to one year in jail and a $1,000 fine. Evidence tampering is a third-degree felony, punishable by up to five years in prison and a $5,000 fine.
Brown officials notified Children and Families about the arrest late Tuesday. Mary Ann Rosenbauer, district manager for administrative services at the agency headquarters in Wildwood, said Children and Families knew about the FDLE investigation and realized an arrest was a possibility.
What effect will the case have on Brown's effort to win a renewal of its state contract and operating license? "We will look at everything in totality and take everything into consideration," Rosenbauer said.
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