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Jun 27, 2008 1:18 pm US/Eastern
Who Killed Omar Paisley?
(CBS4)
For months, I started a series of columns for The Miami Herald with that question. Now, five years after the 17-year-old's death, one person is willing to admit responsibility. Dianne Demeritte will plead guilty to culpable negligence.
Demeritte was one of the nurses who sat back and watched as Paisley writhed in pain for three days before dying from a ruptured appendix at the state's Juvenile Detention Center.
Demeritte was originally charged with manslaughter and third-degree murder, both felonies.
The charge she will plead guilty to – culpable negligence – is a misdemeanor.
She will spend a year on probation and surrender her nursing license.
She will also apologize to Paisley's family.
Imagine that, she will apologize to Paisley's family. How will that apology go?
I'm sorry I allowed your child to die. I'm sorry I ignored your child's pleas for help. I'm sorry he died alone, scared and in excruciating pain. I'm sorry I'm such a poor excuse for a human being.
Not that it matters, but you should know that Paisley wasn't a bad kid. He was at the Juvenile Detention Center because he had gotten into a fight with another teen from his Liberty City neighborhood. He had threatened the kid with the jagged edge of a torn Coke can. It was the first time he had been arrested.
He was taken to the detention center on Friday and he was dead by Monday.
Paisley's death became symbolic of the problems within the state's Department of Juvenile Justice. Because of the attention focused on the case by The Miami Herald, and most notably reporter Carol Marbin Miller, Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle empanelled a Grand Jury to examine Paisley's death and the reasons for it. The Grand Jury found an "utter lack of humanity" within the detention center.
Ultimately, nearly two dozen guards and supervisors were either fired or forced to resign, including the superintendent of the facility. Secretary W.G. "Bill" Bankhead was pressured to leave the Department of Juvenile Justice (DJJ) as were two of his top aides.
But has anything really changed?
In the years since Paisley's death, I've spoken to former and current guards who say problems still exist. They worry about staff shortages and a lack of programs.
Too often the nurses who went to work at the detention center did so because they couldn't find work anywhere else. The pay was poor and once inside they would quickly become jaded and hard and indifferent to those they were there to help.
And while that may offer some understanding as to why Paisley died from what should have been a very treatable case of appendicitis, it does not excuse Demeritte for her callousness.
Who killed Omar Paisley?
The answer to that question does not begin and end with Demeritte. She may be part of the answer but not all of it. There were the guards who heard the pleas for help and did nothing. There were the supervisors who were notified a child was suffering but decided it wasn't their responsibility to address it.
There were those in Tallahassee, both within DJJ and state government, who knew, or should have known, that the department was broken. And then there is all of us, who too often view the children within the juvenile justice system as being beyond salvation. And if we view them as being nothing more than animals, then should we be surprised when they are treated that way. Except, I'm not sure we would even treat a dog the way Omar Paisley was treated.
So who killed Omar Paisley?
I guess we all did.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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