US: civilized land of tolerance or barbaric fanatical police state?

Which is worse?

An unenforced death penalty for heresy?

Or an enforced death penalty for petty theft,
drunkenness and mischief?

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http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/broward/sfl-cinm
ate26sep26.story?coll=sfla%2Dnews%2Dbroward

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Inmates say deputies beat Broward inmate before he was
found dead

By Jeremy Milarsky
Staff Writer
Posted September 26 2001

About a half-dozen jail inmates have told an attorney
with the Broward County Public Defender's Office that a
mentally ill prisoner at the North Broward Detention
Center did not commit suicide last week.

At least one of those inmates says several jailhouse
-----------------
deputies beat the prisoner, John Beraglia, 41, at the
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North Broward Detention Center before he died.

Assistant Public Defender Doug Brawley, who has
represented Beraglia in the past, said he had been
contacted by four inmates on Monday who insisted that
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Beraglia did not kill himself. "Several more" inmates
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contacted Brawley on Tuesday, he said.

Brawley, who declined to name the inmates, said lawyers
with the Sheriff's Office called him soon after he sent
them a letter Monday regarding the inmates' stories.

"I hope they expand the scope of their investigation in
light of this," he said.

Two sheriff's homicide detectives are looking into the
death, sheriff's spokeswoman Veda Coleman-Wright said.
Sheriff Ken Jenne has made the investigation a
priority, she said.

Beraglia died at the North Broward Medical Center in
Pompano Beach on Sept. 16. The next day, Coleman-Wright
said in a news release that jailhouse nurses "tried to
intervene" when they found Beraglia banging his head
against the wall of his jail cell.

Earlier, jail deputies had put Beraglia on suicide
watch after he tried to slit his wrist with a spoon,
Coleman-Wright said in the release. Beraglia had been
in jail for violation of parole, relating to a criminal
mischief charge.

Coleman-Wright also said at the time that Beraglia was
bleeding from the head when he was taken to the
hospital. But she did not say whether deputies had
tried to restrain him forcibly.

"We don't know the cause of death," she said Tuesday.
"The investigation is ongoing and active."

Edwina Johnson, chief investigator at the Broward
Medical Examiner's Office, said Tuesday that the
autopsy on Beraglia had been completed, but a ruling on
his cause of death would not be made until toxicology
test results are in.

Those tests, which usually take up to a month to
complete, are being expedited, she said.

A jail inmate, who identifies himself as 34-year-old
Raymond J. Smith, wrote a letter to the Sun-Sentinel
with his account of the events surrounding the death of
Beraglia, who was described as an eccentric alcoholic
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who sometimes wandered the streets of Deerfield Beach.
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[Sounds like Harry Partch.]

"[The Sheriff's Office account of Beraglia's death] is
inaccurate and an attempt by guards here to cover up
John's murder," the letter said.

According to Smith, Beraglia complained of chest pains
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and told deputies he was having a heart attack about
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3:30 p.m. Sept. 16. When no one responded, Beraglia hit
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his head on the door of his cell, he said.
--------------------------------

Smith and other inmates heard what sounded like a
-
violent struggle inside Beraglia's cell, he said. He
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also said he saw deputies cleaning blood from the cell
-------------------------------------
walls before paramedics arrived.
------======-------------------

Smith, who has been charged with burglary and grand
theft, is being held at the jail on a felony charge
from another state, according to jail records.

Another inmate, 38-year-old Glenn Painter, who has been
convicted of grand theft and arrested for credit card
fraud, contacted Brawley, according to Dan O'Dell, an
Atlanta-based attorney who is Painter's brother.

"He said they basically beat him up," O'Dell said.
--------------------------

Beraglia was a regular around Deerfield Beach, getting
into trouble for minor crimes such as misusing county
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bus transfers and petty theft. He was a "frequent
-----------------------------
patient" at the emergency room of North Broward Medical
Center, said hospital spokeswoman Trish Power, who
declined to give other details, citing concerns for
Beraglia's privacy.

"Every town has someone like John," said Howard
Finkelstein, the chief assistant public defender. "He
enjoyed his beer. John exemplified the right to be
-----------------=========------
crazy and free in America."
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Finkelstein said his office has defended Beraglia "more
than a hundred times."

Beraglia was frequently before the county's Mental
Health Court, which tries to steer mentally ill people
to hospitals rather than prisons, court records show.

Roy Beraglia, John Beraglia's brother who is a 19-year
veteran of the Sheriff's Office, said the initial story
of his brother's death was "not true."