Shelter Bars Advocate Investigating Hanging
Thursday, July 6, 2000
BY CAROL MARBIN MILLER
cmarbin@herald.com
A children's advocate for a federally funded watchdog group was
denied access to an Oakland Park runaway shelter the group is
investigating following the near-death of a 15-year-old boy last
month.
The Tallahassee-based Advocacy Center for Persons with
Disabilities is looking into the June 12 hanging of Anthony Dumas, a
north Broward boy who was arrested in May after threatening his
mother. Dumas was allowed to remain hanging on his black leather
belt by shelter staff until police arrived minutes later to cut him
down.
The boy remains in a coma at Broward General Hospital, said a
lawyer for his parents.
When children's advocate Ann Marie Cintron-Siegel went to the
Lippman Family Center on Friday to investigate the incident, shelter
staff turned her away. By federal law, groups funded to protect and
advocate on behalf of the disabled are entitled to inspect
facilities that house potential clients.
``I was told absolutely, positively in no uncertain terms, there
was no way I would enter the Lippman Center,'' Cintron-Siegel said
Wednesday.
``We provided them with a copy of the federal statute for them to
review, but they denied us access.''
Lawyers for the Advocacy Center are drafting a letter to
Tampa-based Lutheran Services Florida, which operates the Lippman
Center, demanding access to the shelter, said Patty Cooper, director
of the advocacy center's South Florida office in Hollywood. The
shelter is at 221 NW 43rd Ct.
``If they don't listen, we will go to the next step,'' Cooper
said. ``The next step would be court.''
The Advocacy Center is federally funded to safeguard the rights
of the mentally ill and the disabled, and others who are in
residential programs such as the Lippman Center, Cooper said.
Federal law guarantees the group access to such people, many of whom
cannot afford lawyers or other advocates.
Cintron-Siegel, a lawyer, was recently appointed to look into
programs that house mentally ill or troubled children and
adolescents. Most such programs have allowed her to inspect their
facilities, Cooper said.
Dumas was ordered to remain at the Lippman shelter in late May
after his arrest on domestic violence charges. On June 12, another
youth at the Lippman Center found him hanging by his belt, and
alerted shelter staff members. When Oakland Park police arrived
minutes later, Dumas was still hanging.
One staff member told police she had snapped four to six Polaroid
pictures of the youth, rather than cut him down.
The incident also is under investigation by the Department of
Juvenile Justice, which was under contract with Lutheran Services at
the time, the Broward State Attorney's Office, the Broward Sheriff's
Office's Child Protective Investigations Unit, and a consultant for
Lutheran Services.
Joy Margolis, a spokeswoman for Lutheran Services, declined to
discuss the Advocacy Center's investigation Wednesday.
``I don't know who they are,'' she said. ``I've never heard of
them.''
Diane Hirth, a spokeswoman for the juvenile justice department,
also declined to discuss the Advocacy Center's investigation. Hirth
said she would look into allegations that advocates were turned away
from the shelter.
David Fuchs, a Fort Lauderdale lawyer who is representing Dumas'
family, said he is pleased that an independent group is looking into
the circumstances of the hanging. Shirley Finley, Dumas' mother,
does not believe her son would ever attempt to end his life; police
ruled the hanging an attempted suicide.
``We welcome any official investigation of this matter, whether
it be state, local or federal,'' Fuchs said.
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