By Tonya Alanez
The Sun-Sentinel
BROWARD COUNTY, Fla. — The jailhouse deputy didn’t bring the indecent exposure charge against the inmate until the third time he masturbated in front of her.
That’s what Deputy Coryus Veal told Broward County jurors Wednesday as they heard the state build its case against Terry Lee Alexander, 20.
Every time he did it, he stared directly at her, said Veal, 45, a nearly nine-year veteran with the Broward Sheriff’s Office and mother of a 19-month-old.
It was the deliberateness of the act that offended her, she said.
Had he covered himself with a blanket, Veal said, “we wouldn’t be here today.”
It took the four-man, two-woman jury about 45 minutes to reach a guilty verdict.
The crux of deliberations was whether the jail was a public place, said juror David Sherman, a Fort Lauderdale science-fiction novelist.
The jury concluded it was. “Limited access, to be sure,” Sherman said, “but it’s not a private place.”
Masturbation wasn’t the issue, he said, but rather the manner in which it was done. “None of us had any problem with masturbation in private,” Sherman said.
“It was about him exposing himself to her,” said jury foreman Ed Welch, of Coral Springs.
County Judge Fred Berman sentenced Alexander to 60 days in jail. He faced up to one year.
Alexander was charged with indecent exposure Nov. 12 while in jail waiting to resolve an armed robbery case.
He sat at the foot of his bunk alone in his cell. Veal could see Alexander, she said, from a glassed-in, centrally located control room with a direct view of inmates’ cells.
“He was staring directly at me,” she said. “I observed him long enough to recognize what he was doing and I looked away.”
She had looked away the first time, too, she said. That time, and the next time, he stood just outside his open cell door looking her way, she said. After the second incident, she had him moved to a cell where they could not see each other and issued this warning over the intercom: “You can do it in private where I will not be exposed to it.”
He soon ended up back in a more visible cell, she said.
Alexander’s court-appointed attorney, Kathleen McHugh, emphasized her client was 19 at the time and had been jailed for months.
“We’re talking about a basic, innate need of all humans,” McHugh said. “There’s nothing shameful or vulgar about masturbation.”
She criticized Veal for choosing a job where she was bound to see such behavior, for construing Alexander’s sexual impulses as all about her, and for being the only corrections deputy, male or female, to bring such charges against inmates.Veal has brought similar charges against eight inmates — including Alexander — from November to May. Of the seven other cases, three are pending, three have pleaded out and the state dismissed one.
“This is all about her,” McHugh said. “Don’t let this hypersensitive person define vulgar and indecent for you.”
She urged jurors to use “common sense” when defining a public place. “The general public is not permitted in his cell,” McHugh said.
Prosecutor Cynthia Lauriston countered that Alexander had no right to privacy in jail, his cell is not his home and a number of deputies, nurses, program specialists and visitors pass by the cells on any given day.
“We’re not here to determine whether masturbation is right or wrong,” she said. “We charged the defendant with exposing his sexual organs in public.”
Veal should not be subjected to Alexander’s lewd behavior, she said. “She didn’t sign up for this,” Lauriston said. “It is not a part of her job. It’s not expected.”
Twelve days after he was charged with indecent exposure, Alexander pleaded guilty to armed robbery and was sentenced to 10 years in prison. That sentence will begin after he completes the 60 days for the exposure conviction.
Veal told jurors she recently asked for, and has been granted, a transfer. She did not specify her new assignment.
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