DeFede

MIAMI (CBS4 I-TEAM) ― Terry Mixon walked out of the Miami-Dade Regional Juvenile Detention Center Monday morning for the last time.

"It's a real good feeling realizing it's behind me," he said standing in the parking lot. "I can move on now."

Six years ago, Mixon was the guard on duty when 17-year-old Omar Paisley died. Paisley had writhed in pain from a ruptured appendix for three days. Nurses ignored his condition. And most of the guards and supervisors did little to help. Mixon was one of the few exceptions.

When he arrived for work back in June 2003, he found Paisley lying in his bed, holding his stomach in obvious pain. He immediately contacted the nurse and his bosses, but they showed little interest, believing Paisley was either faking his illness or, at worst, had a stomach flu.

Mixon knew there was something more serious going on.

"I'm telling them that this young man cannot walk," he recalled. "This man is really ill and someone needs to come down here to see about him."

In the meantime, Mixon did everything he could to help Paisley. He had other kids in the unit help him change Paisley's soiled sheets and clothing.

"To see something like that take place when you realize you did everything within yourself to call for assistance, to call for help to no avail," he said. "No help ever came."

Mixon's pleas eventually prompted officials to call paramedics. When they finally arrived, Paisley collapsed. He died on the floor outside his cell.

His death hit Mixon hard. Mixon had looked out for Paisley during the teen's brief stay at the detention center.

"He was one of those kids you could have easily adopted as your son and say, `You are my child,'" he said.

In the wake of Paisley's death more than three dozen employees were either fired or forced to resign and the nurses were indicted for manslaughter.

But Mixon's efforts to help Paisley were actually used against him. They said he shouldn't have used the other teens to help him clean Paisley's room. They said he failed to note every call he made to supervisors in the log book. And they said he threw Paisley's sheets away in the wrong colored bag.

"Well I was made a scapegoat," he said.

It took him more than five years, but last month an arbitrator ruled he was wrongfully terminated. He was reinstated with back pay

The arbitrator found Mixon showed compassion to Paisley in his final hours. "HE TOOK TIME TO SIT WITH HIM IN AN EFFORT TO LIFT HIS SPIRITS."

And the arbitrator concluded: "HE PERFORMED HIS DUTIES AT THE HIGHEST LEVEL POSSIBLE UNDER THE CIRCMSTANCE."

Last month he walked back in to the detention center for the first time since his firing.

The first thing he did was visit the cell block where Paisley died.

"I stood right on the spot where he lay and just meditated a little," he said. "It wasn't easy, but I managed to do it."

Monday morning he went back inside the detention center for the last time to submit his resignation. Two years ago he found a new job working with foster kids. But he still wanted to return to the detention center so he could leave on his own terms.

"I was pushed out the door on behalf of the State of Florida and now on this note I am able to walk out on my own," he said.

He says Paisley's spirit is still with him.

"He lives down deep within me because he was a wonderful young man," he said. "And there ain't a week that goes by that you don't feel some type of spirit some type of tugging that says fight it, you done nothing wrong Terry."

(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)

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