BROWARD COUNTY, Fla. – The circle of relatives of 29-year-old Janard Geffrard wants answers.
They wish to know the place detention deputies had been whilst their beloved one was once getting crushed to loss of life by means of his 35-year-old cellmate, Kevin Barnes.
“I thought he was safer in there than in the streets,” stated Marcia Irving, Geffrard’s mom.
According to an arrest shape, on Dec. 16, Barnes was once noticed on jail surveillance choking Geffrard for 2 mins immediately sooner than stomping on him ten mins later, telling investigators he sought after to peer if he was once nonetheless alive whilst admitting that, “he did not agree with his lifestyle because he was gay,” and that he “smelled and never cleaned himself.”
The circle of relatives’s lawyer, Josiah Graham of Graham Injury Firm, stated the beating went on for 21 mins and now not one deputy intervened.
Geffrard was once declared mind useless on Dec. 26 and was once stored on existence strengthen so as to harvest his organs. He died 5 days later.
“Somebody beat my kid up real bad, and then he kept doing it, he kept after he was out,” stated Irving.
Geffrard suffered from psychological well being problems and so does Barnes, which raises questions as to why they had been positioned in the similar mobile.
“That’s a measure of screening within the jail,” stated Broward County public defender Gordon Weekes. “That is a measure of making proper determinations about who you place into close confines with each other.”
Weekes additionally says the jail failed Geffrard and his circle of relatives, writing a letter to Broward County Sheriff Gregory Tony concerning the state of affairs and about how those who undergo from psychological well being problems are again and again lost sight of on the jail.
“We basically had an individual die at the hands of other individuals at the jail and no one did anything to intervene,” stated Weekes.
BSO launched a remark to Local 10 News relating to this incident, which learn:
“BSO’s Internal Affairs Unit has an open and active administrative investigation into the incident, and two BSO employees, a detention deputy and a detention technician, are currently on administrative investigative leave with pay.”
LETTER FROM PUBLIC DEFENDER
BSO LETTER ON INMATES WITH MENTAL ILLNESS
ARREST FORM FOR KEVIN BARNES
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