JUVENILE JUSTICE: Lawmakers Decry DJJ Chief's 'Lies'

Some Florida lawmakers are losing confidence in the state's juvenile-justice agency, saying its head, Anthony Schembri, has told 'lies' too many times.

By Marc Caputo

The head of Florida's troubleridden Department of Juvenile Justice has been caught in so many misstatements, double-talk and ''lies,'' lawmakers say, they're concerned he's giving them a flawed view of how his agency deals with troubled kids.

On Wednesday, a committee of lawmakers double-checked statements that DJJ chief Anthony Schembri made last week, when he said Martin County was closing its juvenile boot camp partly because staff members dislike the bad publicity from the death of a teen at a Panama City camp hundreds of miles away.

''They've had it -- in plain English,'' Schembri said last week about the Martin County camp, noting money was also a big issue. ``There is nothing we could do to bring them back and you should have a chat with that sheriff.''

So the House Juvenile Justice Committee called Martin County Sheriff Bob Crowder, whose office runs the camp, before them Wednesday. Lawmakers demanded that DJJ divert money from the recently closed Panama City camp to Crowder, who called Florida's juvenile justice system ``a sinking ship.''

And Crowder told legislators that Martin Lee Anderson's death ''had nothing to do with our decision'' to shut down the camp.

Crowder said he'll close his camp -- rated the best of the four in Florida -- based on only one fact: Lack of money.

Angry lawmakers said they weren't surprised that Schembri had tried to mislead them.

''For us, when somebody comes up and misleads and flat out and -- I'll say it -- lies to a legislative committee, it's something that is inexcusable,'' Rep. Gus Barreiro, a Miami Beach Republican, said after the meeting. ``And it's not the first time.''

Schembri declined to comment. A spokesman for Gov. Jeb Bush said the governor has full confidence in the DJJ chief.

Joined by representatives from other political persuasions and parts of the state, Barreiro said it's tough for lawmakers to make policy and properly fund agencies when agency heads give them false information.

Schembri has long been at odds with Barreiro, having questioned the lawmakers' comparison of the video of Martin's Jan. 5 beating by boot camp guards to the Rodney King incident. ''I've seen worse'' than the Martin video, Schembri told The Associated Press recently.

But the DJJ chief's falling-out with Barreiro and other lawmakers really began in October after Barreiro's committee, House Juvenile Justice Appropriations, scolded DJJ for not punishing any supervisors of a Tallahassee lockup where a severely mentally retarded 15-year-old was left in the care of a 17-year-old sex offender, who allegedly raped the younger boy.

Schembri, who questioned the validity of the complaint, said he'd fire no one until the end of a criminal investigation. He then claimed: ``I have fired over 300 employees, since I'm here, for abusing kids.''

COMMENTS AMENDED

But Schembri later told The Miami Herald that he had actually fired far fewer people and, hours after he was grilled by the House committee, decided to fire one worker and suspend another linked to the alleged rape case. Last month, Schembri ran afoul of another sheriff, Grady Judd of Polk County, when he said DJJ closed a girls' boot camp run by Judd because ``we had girls that were urinating in their pants. That kind of stress management does not work with girls.''

But the sheriff said the pants-wetting allegation was made two months after the closure of the camp -- and was made about a different facility. Schembri, again, admitted to The Miami Herald that he had been wrong.

Last week, when he appeared before the juvenile justice committee, Schembri got in a tense exchange with Rep. Mitch Needleman, a Melbourne Republican, after the DJJ chief started listing off all the problems with the agency: lack of training for employees and a lack of counseling for kids to keep them from committing crimes.

Needleman accused Schembri of ''shifting blame'' and not giving lawmakers an accurate picture of the agency's needs. He noted that DJJ's budget request for next year, which the Legislature must approve this spring, didn't include any extra money. Needleman also took issue with Schembri's claim about the Panama City boot-camp death affecting Sheriff Crowder's camp. Needleman said Wednesday that Schembri ''misled'' lawmakers.

SHERIFF THANKED

A number of lawmakers thanked Crowder Wednesday for simply being honest. Though soft-spoken, the Republican sheriff was firm and laid blame for some troubles -- not including Martin's death -- on the ''dysfunctional'' relationship between the lawmakers and the agencies controlled by Gov. Jeb Bush, who he said has ''mismanaged'' DJJ by not giving the agency enough money. He also said a recent Bush proposal to give boot camps more money is not enough.

The committee demanded DJJ's No. 2 man, Christian Caballero, divert left-over money from the Panama City camp to the Martin County facility, in which only 22 percent of kids commit new crimes after they graduate. The main reason for the relatively low numbers: extensive counseling.

But because Martin County's camp is closing, Caballero said DJJ plans to shift the leftover money to Manatee County's sheriff, who wanted to offer counseling at his boot camp. The committee, however, said it made little sense to reward a program that even Caballero described as ``mediocre.''

Rep. Trey Traviesa, a Tampa Republican, questioned why keeping the Martin camp open is not the agency's top priority.

Caballero said that it is a top priority now, and said ``unfortunately maybe the message hasn't always been delivered properly by the agency and that's partially my responsibility.''

But Rep. Audrey Gibson, a Jacksonville Democrat, disagreed on who's to blame. She thanked Sheriff Crowder for his demeanor and compared it to that of Schembri, who frequently boasts of his past as a New York City cop and as a crusader for kids' rights.

''I wish some other people could be here and understand that it's not pompousness . . . that is going to help our kids,'' she said.

''Well said,'' said committee chairwoman Faye Culpe, a Tampa Republican.