By Eliot Kleinberg and Alexandra Seltzer
Palm Beach Post
PALM BEACH, Fla. — A jail deputy for the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office was arrested Wednesday after colleagues said he facilitated a fight between two inmates, one of whom is accused of first-degree murder.
Derrick Antonio Daniels, 39, was booked into the Palm Beach County Jail, where he was assigned as a detention deputy.
At Daniels’ first appearance in court Wednesday, Circuit Judge Krista Marx ordered that he be held in lieu of $17,000 bail. Daniels, who has been a deputy since 1994, was charged with tampering with evidence, culpable negligence, aggravated battery and three counts of official misconduct. He was placed on paid leave.
According to a probable cause affidavit, Daniels released inmate Taurus Turnquest, 34, of Riviera Beach from his cell on Dec. 12 and allowed him to enter the cell of Lajuane Dunnaway, 36, of West Palm Beach.
Turnquest had been threatening to kill Dunnaway. The inmates were held in the county jail’s Special Confinement Management Housing section and were not supposed to have contact with each other.
Turnquest grabbed Dunnaway’s pencil and stabbed him, causing back and neck wounds. He also used a razor-like object to slash Dunnaway’s neck, shoulders and arms.
After the fight, Daniels removed bed linens and other items with Dunnaway’s blood on them from the cell.
Daniels did not report the incident and excluded it from the logs he is required to keep as part of his duties, the affidavit states.
The next day, another deputy saw Dunnaway’s wounds and let him go to the walk-in clinic.
After the court appearance, Daniels’ attorney, Patrick McKamey, said he intends to defend his client aggressively.
Turnquest, charged with aggravated battery, refused to appear in court Wednesday. Palm Beach County Jail records show has been detained since 2007 on premeditated first-degree murder and other charges.
Before that, records show he was in state prison from 1995 to early 1997, from late 1997 to 1999, and from 2003 to 2005 on Palm Beach County convictions that included aggravated battery with a deadly weapon and drug sales.
Records show Dunnaway, who is in jail on battery charges, was in state prison from 1991 to 2000 and again from 2002 to 2003 on charges that included battery on a state employee and battery on a law enforcement officer.
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