Florida Deputy Drags Crying Woman Through Courthouse by Her Shackles
A Broward County, Fla., sheriff's deputy is on restricted duty after an attorney caught him on video Monday morning dragging a mentally ill woman down a courthouse hallway by the shackles around her legs.
The victim, 28-year-old Dasyl Jeanette Rios, was in court on charges of trespassing and criminal mischief, and had just been found not competent to stand trial, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel reported.
A public defender described the events that took place just before attorney and courthouse blogger Bill Gelin started filming:
Rios had been declared incompetent and, after her hearing was over, was heard arguing with a female deputy in the courtroom. [Deputy Chris] Johnson interceded and escorted Rios into the hallway, Boettcher said. Once there, Rios sat on a bench and started to cry.
At that point, Deputy Johnson reportedly "yanked" Rios off the bench and began dragging her down the hall. In the video, she can be heard yelling "Stop! You're hurting me! You're fucking hurting me!" and asking to be taken to a hospital.
"I'm not going back to get beat up! I'm not going back to get beat up!" she screams.
Rios is now "being held without bond in the Broward Main Jail for violating probation on a felony drug possession case," the Sun-Sentinel reported, and Johnson is on restricted duty, forbidden from interacting with inmates until Internal Affairs finishes an investigation.
"I am concerned by the way the deputy handled this situation, because there were other courses of action he could have taken," Broward Sheriff Scott Israel said in a statement.
