Marissa Amora might have her medical expenses covered by the state, but the stingy GOP led Legislature will have to give its stamp of approval first.
A jury just decided that Florida’s Department of Children and Families was 75 percent responsible for allowing the near-fatal beating that put Marissa in the hospital at the age of 2 that has resulted in lifelong injuries and the need for expensive ongoing care.
The Palm Beach Post has the story of the verdict.
On Tuesday, however, a Palm Beach County jury spoke for her, saying the Department of Children and Families was negligent and must pay the bulk of a $35.1 million award for the 6-year-old’s suffering and future care.
Marissa’s adoptive parents, Ric and Dawn Amora, had sued DCF in order to make the state pay her medical expenses for life.
“The truth has come out,” said a teary-eyed Dawn Amora as she pushed Marissa, who uses a wheelchair, out of Circuit Judge Jonathan Gerber’s courtroom after the verdict. “They can’t hide behind lies anymore.”
The six-member jury found that DCF was 75 percent responsible for the negligence that left Marissa brain-damaged. Jurors also found that 20 percent of the blame rests with Miami Children’s Hospital, which released Marissa despite DCF’s ongoing investigation, and 5 percent went to her biological mother, Guerlande Pierre-Louis.
Authorities believe Pierre-Louis’ boyfriend, Joubert Culceus, beat Marissa, formerly named Moesha Sylencieux.
Foreman James Nelson said the three-week trial was emotional for the three men and three women on the jury. But he said the evidence showed DCF failed to protect Marissa.
“She needs to be taken care of,” Nelson said.
Attorney Stephen Radford, who represented DCF, left the courtroom without comment. During the trial, he placed blame on Miami Children’s Hospital officials, saying they failed to recognize the case as abuse.
Mary Jones, a DCF spokeswoman, said the agency had not determined its next step.
“The circumstances surrounding the child’s condition are heartbreaking,” Jones said. “But we are reviewing the court’s decision, and we’re considering our legal options.”
……Despite her court victory, Marissa’s representatives now must take her case to the legislature. Under Florida law, DCF can pay damages only up to $100,000 per person and $200,000 per incident. Any payout above those figures requires legislative approval.
Marissa’s attorney, Joe Nusbaum, said the burden once again is on the state. Florida lawmakers should adhere to the jury’s decision, he said.
“Now we look to the state of Florida to do the right thing,” Nusbaum said.
Yeah, the Legislature is known for doing the right thing when it comes to compensating individuals for personal suffering brought about through the actions (or inaction) of the state.
It was shameful that the Legislature did not provide for compensating Wilton Dedge or extending the Oct. 1 deadline for DNA testing that could free other innocent people from prison. Both failures were deliberate. It is impossible to understand or excuse the cruel indifference of the House leadership to the fact that Dedge and his parents deserve, at a minimum, to recoup legal expenses and the income he was denied during the 22 years he was incarcerated for someone else’s crime.
The Senate passed a wonderfully fair and creative bill by Sen. Daniel Webster, R-Winter Garden, that would have allowed Dedge, and the others everyone knows will follow, to submit documented claims to the attorney general for lost income, legal expenses, and other quantifiable costs. The House did not consider it, voting instead to set up what Webster called a “glorified claims bill” procedure that would make Dedge wait another year for money that might not be awarded even then.
Webster said Dedge “deserves compensation now.” He and the Senate decided correctly, however, that it was better to pass nothing than the House’s devious scheme. Dedge’s lawyers will now sue the state under the same legal theory underlying Webster’s bill: that a person’s liberty is no less valuable than land taken for a highway or orange trees destroyed to stop citrus canker. The state pays promptly for those because property rights are not subject to the arcane concept of sovereign immunity. When Dedge’s law suit is filed, Attorney General Charlie Crist should concede the analogy.