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| Fla. Trio Cleared In Inmate's 'Accidental' Death |
| By Tampa Bay Tribune |
| Published: 05/20/2003 |
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A Pinellas County Jail inmate died in March after three detention deputies pinned him down on a bed so hard they essentially asphyxiated him, fracturing his ribs in 17 places, according to an investigation by the Pinellas-Pasco State Attorney's Office. It was not discovered for up to seven minutes that Larry Germonprez, 41, had stopped breathing after deputies let up, the state attorney's office said. The review was summarized in a letter sent Monday to Pinellas Sheriff Everett Rice, who oversees the jail. Jon Thogmartin, the Pinellas-Pasco medical examiner whose office conducted an autopsy on Germonprez, said resuscitating anyone who has gone without oxygen for four minutes or longer is 'very difficult,'' and that the brain at that point is badly damaged, according to a letter by State Attorney Bernie McCabe. In the letter, McCabe cleared the detention deputies - Walter Kelly, William Johnson and Paul Pappasergi - of criminal wrongdoing. He said the trio were acting within the legal performance of their duties while trying to restrain and subdue Germonprez. McCabe found the inmate's death 'accidental and unintentional.'' In two other cases since December, Pinellas County's top prosecutor has cleared law enforcement officers in a suspect's death that an autopsy says was caused by a struggle with the lawmen. |
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