Strokes and Elections Kill

May is Stroke AWARENESS month and yet in MAY of 2012 the Sheriff's office managed to conceal from the public their botched treatment of stroke victim Allen Daniel Hicks for all of campaign year 2012.

Many also do not realize that the Allen Daniel Hicks Sr stroke death tragedy beginning on May 11, 2012 was only about 4 months after the Isabella Herrera tragedy on January 25, 2012. Hicks was booked without a medical screening and placed in cells where he lay approximately 36 hours before he was finally diagnosed with stroke symptoms and taken to Tampa General Hospital, where he later slipped into a coma and died on Aug. 7.

Isabella Herrera died from respiratory distress on January 26, 2012 that began on a School Bus. The aide and bus driver failed to call 911 or seek assistance at the pediatric clinic that they were parked in front of.

Both incidents involved the Sheriff’s Office’s own staff and share the same failure to report these tragedies to the public during a campaign year.

We previously reported how anyone can check the Sheriff’s news releases at their website (see Juxtaposed News “What Constitutes Negligence”) and specifically noted the Sheriff Office’s previous failure to report/provide a news release in the Isabella Herrera tragedy that they responded to.  Then, here again in the Hicks tragedy, the Sheriff’s office again conveniently failed to report/ provide a news release on this incident also.

The failure of the Sheriff’s Office to report the Isabella Herrera tragedy contributed to its conveniently remaining virtually unknown to the general public for 9 months, during a campaign year when 4 incumbent school board members were running for re-election, the Republican National Convention was coming to town, and the School Superintendent was in the midst of her own performance review.

Do you believe that the 2012 School Board elections did not factor in to the decision of Sheriff Gee, Not-so-Superintendent Elia, then Board Chair Candy Olson to not inform the school board and the public about the Isabella Herrera tragedy for 9 months? Imagine how that campaign year would have gone if we had all known about this reprehensible action of the Sheriff’s Office, Superintendent, School Board and school district.

This failure to report arguably led to a failure to take action in the form of training and procedures until the death of a second special needs student Jenny Caballero on October 22, 2012.

But do you recall who else was running for re-election in 2012? That’s right- Sheriff Gee. Imagine what might have been if either or both of these tragedies had been reported by the Sheriff’s department in their News Releases.  Conceivably, Jenny Caballero would still be with us. Conceivably, the public outrage over the lack of training and procedures at the School District over the Herrera tragedy would have even made the Sheriff review his own training and procedures and thus saved the life of Allen Daniel Hicks Sr.

You can imagine what a campaign disaster it would have been for the sheriff to have an innocent person die from a stroke suffered during "Stroke Awareness Month".

But, instead the general public was left virtually uninformed and most of these incumbents had a safe ride for themselves to re-election. Elections kill.

And here we are on the eve of the 2014 School Board elections and now school board member Stacy White wants to be your next County Commissioner and guess who is supporting the re-election of Stacy White? That’s right- none other than Sheriff Gee and State Attorney Mark Ober. Is this yet another a quid pro quo?

Not only did the Sheriff’s department not report the incident in their News Releases but they did not take any formal disciplinary action against their staff. Was this a quid pro quo? Had they taken action against the staff, the staff might have gone public or to the press much sooner. Is that why no disciplinary action was taken?

Recall that the School District also originally never disciplined the bus driver or aide in the Isabella Herrera tragedy. Was this another quid pro quo to keep them from talking? Meanwhile there are numerous examples that those staff who do talk are let go. And you almost never see any teachers or staff speaking independently on a School Board meeting agenda item (see Scott Adamss “We the people of Hillsborough County”).

But the Sheriff’s Office issued a news release in December 15, 2011 for a special needs student that was left on a bus at Valrico Elementary but that child was not injured. None the less the Sheriff’s news release says “Deputies investigated the incident and after consulting with the State Attorney's Office a warrant was issued for the School Aide.”  

Turns out that it is optional for the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office to consult with the state attorney in potentially criminal matters.

According to Mark Cox with the Office of the State Attorney, 13th Judicial Circuit, Hillsborough County “There is no requirement that law enforcement agencies consult with the State Attorney’s Office. These agencies are independent from the State Attorney’s Office with their own command and investigation authority. If the law enforcement agency wishes to, it may forward the results of any investigation to the State Attorney’s Office in what is known as a direct file.”

So if the Sheriff Gee does not “wish to,” he has no obligation to forward the result of any investigation to the Mark Ober, State Attorney, 13th Judicial Circuit, Hillsborough County. Apparently Sheriff Gee did not “wish to” forward the death of student Isabella Herrera in January 2012, an election year where 4 incumbent School Board members AND Sheriff Gee were seeking re-election. And apparently the Sheriff’s Office also did not wish to forward the death of Allen Daniel Hicks to the State Attorney only 4 months later in May of 2012. 

Apparently the Sheriff selectively consults with the State Attorney’s Office when he feels like it and depending on whether it is an election year?

Does the State Attorney consider an uninjured child left on a bus to be negligence, but does not consider the death of Isabella Herrera or Allen Daniel Hicks Sr, both resulting from a failure to seek prompt medical attention to be negligence?

You might want to write the State Attorney(ober_m@sao13th.com) and ask why the Herrera tragedy and Allen Daniel Hicks Sr tragedy are not negligence.