Attorney General's Office acknowledges error in baby's death

By John Barry, Times Staff Writer
Posted: Jun 02, 2011 04:37 PM

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TAMPA ? The office of Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi admitted Thursday it erred in blocking the removal of a year-old baby from his Tampa home before the boy was beaten to death on May 18.

In a review of how numerous child protection officials failed to prevent Ezekiel Mathis' death, Bondi's office said it applied the law too narrowly and was cut out of the loop on continuing dangers to the child in the days leading up to his death.

It also said the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office could have removed Ezekiel without its permission, but sheriff's investigators misunderstood their own authority.

The report's bottom line: The Attorney General's Office became too wrapped up in narrow legal issues. Ezekiel's safety should have come before anything else. Legal mistakes could have been corrected later.

"We erred on the side of the law rather than the side of caution," Nick Cox, Bondi's statewide prosecutor, said Thursday. He co-wrote the review with Bondi's inspector general, James Varnado.

Bondi referred all questions to Cox, but said in a statement that she is interested in a "restructuring" of her Tampa legal office after more review.

The attorney general's findings were released simultaneously with a report by the state Department of Children and Families which reached most of the same conclusions.

Most of the missteps, large and small, could be traced to miscommunications and misunderstandings, large and small, among multiple levels of bureaucracy.

One example: A therapist's e-mail alerted a sheriff's child protection investigator to the continued presence of the mother's boyfriend in the home after a judge had barred the boyfriend from going there. But the email went to the wrong address. After it was rerouted, the investigator failed to open it.

Another example: No one ever alerted the Attorney General's Office to an April incident at a park where the boyfriend was caught on videotape striking the mother's 2-year-old daughter.

[Last modified: Jun 02, 2011 04:37 PM]

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Source: http://www.tampabay.com/news/publicsafety/crime/attorney-generals-office-acknowledges-error-in-babys-death/1173245

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