By RYAN MILLS
Naples Daily News
COLLIER COUNTY, Fla. — A Collier County sheriff’s deputy who investigators claim failed to patrol inside the county Juvenile Assessment Center for an hour in May while two teens battered a 14-year-old boy was suspended for a week without pay in December.
Deputy Shadrick McCausland, 34, was also placed on six months’ probation, and given a letter of reprimand and a final warning after a charge of untruthfulness was sustained against him during an internal investigation, the Sheriff’s Office reported Wednesday.
McCausland was on duty the night of May 14 at the assessment center, according to the closed investigation.
Every 10 minutes, McCausland was required to check on the juveniles detained in the center, and record the checks in a log.
However, for about an hour, McCausland was caught up surfing the Internet for gang Web sites for his gang intelligence research, and failed to conduct the checks, the investigation revealed.
“I must have got sidetracked with the times,” McCausland told investigators.
Even so, McCausland wrote in the logs that he did conduct the checks, said Capt. Al Beatty of the agency’s Professional Responsibility Bureau.
“He was conducting Sheriff’s Office business,” Beatty said. “He got delayed and he should not have written down that he did checks when he, in fact, did not.”
Authorities learned that between 11:37 p.m. May 14 and 12:46 a.m. May 15, while McCausland was doing “gang intelligence research,” a 14-year-old boy was being assaulted in a cell not more than 20 feet away.
Reports indicate that Joshua Richard Tirado, then 17, of 4348 19th Place S.W., in Golden Gate, and Tyler “T-Boy” Joseph Murphy, then 15, of 5100 19th Ave. S.W. in Golden Gate, who are both known to have violent pasts, forced a 14-year-old cell mate to lick the floor, lick the toilet, hit himself in the face until he bled, and do push-ups.
The boy was made to wash his face in the toilet, and lick the floor after it was spit on and urinated on, reports said. Tirado and Murphy also kicked the 14-year-old.
For about 35 seconds during the attack, a camera in the cell was covered with a shirt, which quickly fell off. An employee who monitors the cameras in a master control room also did not see the assault, Beatty said.
Both Tirado and Murphy were eventually arrested on battery charges.
Tirado was sentenced to six months in the county jail and two years of probation. Murphy, who was considered less culpable, was sentenced in juvenile court.
McCausland, who started with the Sheriff’s Office in July 2004, earns $47,896.91 a year, the Sheriff’s Office reported.
Though the on-duty officer sits only about 20 feet from the holding cell in the Juvenile Assessment Center, the officer cannot easily see the cell, Beatty said. He said the Sheriff’s Office is considering changes.
“It’s to redesign that booking area to allow the post officer to be in direct sight and sound of the juveniles at all times by maybe relocating the officer’s desk and possibly installing Plexiglas planes in the door of the holding cell,” Beatty said.
Copyright 2009 Collier County Publishing Company